Although Kevin Garnett was missing from the lineup, the Boston Celtics didn't miss a beat without their injured All-Star forward, dpa reported.
Rajon Rondo had a career-high 32 points with 10 assists, Ray Allen scored 31 and the short-handed Celtics spanked the Phoenix Suns 128-108 on Sunday.
"Guys step up and play their roles even better when Kevin is out," Rondo said. "It was a team effort."
The Celtics played their first game since learning Garnett will be sidelined for the next 2-3 weeks with a right knee sprain suffered Thursday night against Utah. However, the defending champions showed their desire and depth without their intense floor leader.
"This team is very confident without Kevin," said Celtics' captain Paul Pierce, who netted 26 points as the team improved to 13-2 all-time without Garnett. "We don't get discouraged when one guy goes down we just try to hold down the fort and win games."
Brian Scalabrine chipped in with a season-best 14 in place of Garnett for Boston (45-12) which moved to 3-1 on their four-game road trip.
Jason Richardson scored 21 points, Steve Nash had 19 with 11 assists for Phoenix (31-24) which lost its top scorer and rebounder Amare Stoudemire for the rest of the regular season, following surgery on Friday to repair a partially detached retina in his right eye.
Since returning to their successful high-octane offence this past week under new interim head coach Alvin Gentry, the Suns piled up more than 140 points in three blowouts against bottom-feeders the LA Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder. However, they had no answers against the mighty Celtics, and were dominated.
"There is a reason they are the world champs, that's a really good team with or without Kevin Garnett," Gentry said. "You can see that they don't have a whole lot of weaknesses."
With Rondo running the show, the Celtics shredded the Suns' porous defence, hitting a sizzling 64 per cent from the field en route to their highest point total of the season.
"I just tried to stay aggressive, the assists will come when I drive into the lane," said Rondo, who celebrated his 23rd birthday with a 13-of-18 shooting performance on an assortment of spinning layups. "They didn't come to help so I took the shots."
Rondo had 22 points by halftime and Boston led 68-54.Scalabrine's layup with 8:42 remaining in the third period opened up an 80-59 cushion.
The Suns closed to 96-87 on three-pointer by Richardson with 11 minutes left to play. But Allen's triple triggered a 15-3 burst and the Celtics coasted to the finish line.
Elsewhere: Orlando Magic 122 Miami Heat 99 Dwight Howard had 32 points and 17 rebounds, and the Magic hit 17-of-32 three-pointers to beat the Heat despite Dwyane Wade's career-high 50 points.
LA Lakers 111, Minnesota Timberwolves 108 Kobe Bryant scored 28 points, Lamar Odom had 25 with 14 rebounds and the league-best Lakers (46-10) handed the Timberwolves their sixth straight home loss
Ryan Gomes topped Minnesota (18-37) with 20 points and Craig Smith added 19.
Cleveland Cavaliers 99, Detroit Pistons 78 Delonte West, sidelined since January 15 with a broken right wrist, scored 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting, LeBron James added 20 with nine assists and the host Cavaliers sent the struggling Pistons to their season-high sixth straight loss.
Toronto Raptors 111, New York Knicks 100 Italy's Andrea Bargnani had 28 points with 10 rebounds, Anthony Parker scored 24 and the Raptors rebounded to win the back end of the home-and-home series after a 30-point blowout on Thursday.
Al Harrington led New York (23-32) with 31 points, while David Lee had 17 points with 15 rebounds.
Indiana Pacers 98, Chicago Bulls 91 Troy Murphy had a season-high 27 points with 14 rebounds, and the Pacers held off the Bulls, despite suffering an 11-minute field goal drought in the second half.
Ben Gordon topped Chicago (25-31) with 28 points.
Milwaukee Bucks 120, Denver Nuggets 117 Charlie Villanueva scored a season-high 36 points, including a career-best seven three-pointers, Ramon Sessions scored 27 and the Bucks edged the travel-weary Nuggets.
Carmelo Anthony scored 33 points for Denver (37-19) which finished a season-high eight-game road trip with a 5-3 mark.
Houston Rockets 99, Charlotte Bobcats 78 Ron Artest tossed in 26 points, China's Yao Ming added 19 and the Rockets outscored the Bobcats 29-14 in the decisive third-quarter en route to their fourth straight victory.
Portland Trail Blazers 116, LA Clippers 87 LaMarcus Aldridge scored 20 points, Steve Blake handed out 14 of his 17 assists in the opening quarter, helping the Trail Blazers to their eighth consecutive home-court victory.
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