Jaylen Brown in street clothes? Payton Pritchard slogging through one of his worst shooting nights of the season?

Didn’t matter for the Celtics on Tuesday night in Phoenix.

Playing without Brown, who sat out with a knee contusion, Boston battered the shorthanded Suns 97-81 at the Mortgage Matchup Center to remain perfect on their West Coast road trip.

Derrick White led the Celtics with 22 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, three blocks and one steal. Neemias Queta (14 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks) and Baylor Scheierman (11 points, 11 rebounds) both notched double-doubles. Pritchard, who had scored at least 24 points in six of his previous seven games, was held to eight on 2-of-13 shooting with three turnovers, but still finished as a plus-11 in his 34 minutes.

After falling behind by 11 during an uneven first half, the Celtics buried the Suns with a 50-11 run that stretched from midway through the second quarter until late in the third. Overall, Boston attempted 16 more shots and 11 more 3-pointers than Phoenix, which was playing without injured leading scorers Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks. The Celtics also held a massive edge in offensive rebounding (22-9) and dished out 24 assists.

Including their home win over Chicago before the NBA All-Star break, the Celtics (38-19) have won four straight, all by double digits. Tuesday’s victory kept them in contention for the 40-win, 20-loss club — a benchmark all but three NBA champions since 1980 have cleared.

Winners of nine of their last 10, the C’s will conclude their trip Wednesday night against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets (9 p.m. ET).

The Celtics plugged Ron Harper Jr. into Brown’s spot in the starting lineup, just as they did when the latter sat out Boston’s Feb. 4 win over Houston. It was the second career start for the two-way wing, who’s now seen action in six of the team’s last seven games after rarely playing outside of the G League for the first three-plus months of the season.

Harper and his fellow starters worked the offensive glass relentlessly. Five minutes in, all five had grabbed at least one offensive rebound. The Celtics piled up nine total OREBs in the first quarter, including four by Harper.

There were far more opportunities for those than Boston would have liked, however. The Celtics shot just 9 for 28 from the field (32%) and 3 for 15 from 3-point range (20%) in the opening period. As a result, they turned those nine offensive boards into just four second-chance points. They surrendered a 10-0 Suns run and trailed 26-21 after one.

Phoenix shot the ball much more efficiently during that stretch. The hosts hit seven of their first 13 3s, including three straight makes that put them ahead 41-30 midway through the second quarter.

After that flurry, the Celtics’ offense finally settled in.

Pritchard drove and drew fouls on back-to-back possessions. White hit a 3-pointer. After Pritchard stole an errant Suns pass, White zipped one inside to Queta for an emphatic dunk. Jordan Walsh drew an offensive foul to force a turnover, pump-faked a 3 to evade a defender, then drove baseline for a slam. (A few minutes later, Walsh lobbied for the Celtics to challenge a correct foul call and was benched for the rest of the game.)

Another White 3-pointer — his fourth of the half — erased the Suns’ double-digit lead. Ensuing Queta free throws capped a 14-0 Celtics run, and Boston took a 50-46 advantage into halftime.

White scored 18 first-half points, and Queta had 10, helping the Celtics withstand both Brown’s absence and Pritchard’s off shooting night.

Queta’s work at both ends helped Boston extend its lead early in the second half. The big man drew a foul inside, sank a baby hook shot, rejected a shot by Suns counterpart Mark Williams and fed a pass to Hauser for a layup. He also continued to stack up rebounds, securing his 10th double-double of the season before the midway point of the third quarter.

Hauser added three 3-pointers as part of a 12-point quarter. Nikola Vucevic replaced Queta and chipped in a turnaround jumper, a tip-in, a pair of free throws and a slick pass to set up a Scheierman layup.

The story of the third quarter, though, was Boston’s defense. The Celtics outscored the Suns 30-11, with two of the latter’s four made field goals coming in the final 90 seconds of the frame. They held Phoenix scoreless for more than six straight minutes.

Harper delivered the loudest defensive play when he sprinted back to block a transition layup by Jamaree Bouyea, drawing such a strong reaction from his teammates that Scheierman gave him a high-five while the ball was still in play. A nifty Eurostep finish by Hugo Gonzalez at the other end made it 75-52 Celtics. It was 80-57 at the start of the fourth quarter.

The Suns opened the fourth with a 9-0 run, but a 3-pointer by Harper, followed by an and-one White floater and another 3 by Scheierman, snuffed out the brief rally. Head coach Joe Mazzulla emptied his bench with four minutes remaining, sending in rookie John Tonje for his NBA debut and veteran Dalano Banton for his first minutes as a Celtic this season.

Tonje, a trade-deadline pickup, and Banton, who spent time with Boston during the 2023-24 season, are on 10-day contracts that expire this weekend.

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