When Devin Booker and his Phoenix Suns teammates were gripped by adversities at times in recent months, he found himself thinking about long road trips during the 2017-18 season.
The Suns went through weeks in an endless slog of losses that season. They had hit rock bottom. At one point, the team went through a soul-crushing 3-32 stretch. Booker was in anguish, about to have his fourth coach in three years.
"We've been at the bottom," Booker said when reflecting upon past obstacles earlier this 2022-23 season. "When you're sitting last in the West and there's 30 games in the season left and you're wondering what's going on."
That perspective and a core of teammates with years invested together has played a crucial role in the Suns' performance early this season as they have been able to move past some of the internal crises.
Suns owner Robert Sarver's decision to put the franchise up for sale following a damaging report released by the NBA, a bitter standoff with veteran forward Jae Crowder, some scar tissue with star center Deandre Ayton after a brutal contract negotiation and key injuries to starters Chris Paul and Cameron Johnson haven't kept Phoenix from fighting its way to the top of the Western Conference standings.
In some ways, the Suns (16-8) could find various forms of solidarity with their opponent Wednesday night when the Boston Celtics (20-5) visit (10 p.m. ET, ESPN).
The Celtics endured a personnel upheaval just before the start of the season when coach Ime Udoka was suspended for the 2022-23 season for an improper relationship with a subordinate and Joe Mazzulla, who had no NBA head-coaching experience before, was thrust into the seat. Then, Robert Williams III, Boston's defensive anchor, was shelved for months following knee surgery.
The Celtics, like the Suns, have relied on togetherness, chemistry and a thirst to get back to the Finals to propel themselves into the Eastern Conference's best record.
"We have a great foundation here," said Booker, who is having the best season of his career, averaging 28 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists per game.
"We've showed promise, we shown what we're capable of, we have the chemistry, we have the experience in years together and we've been through a lot of situations. I think that's the only way to build and get better is go through things together."
Booker, Ayton, Mikal Bridges have been in Phoenix together for five years with Johnson in his fourth season. Coach Monty Williams, now in his fourth season, and Paul, now in his third with the team, are well known in league circles for their leadership. That connection has been unmistakable as the Suns have managed various stresses this season.
They rank in the top 10 in defense and have the league's second-best offense, replicating the kind of force that carried them to 62 wins last season.
The Celtics find themselves in a similar roster situation with their core of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart in their sixth year together in Boston. Veteran big man Al Horford is in his fifth season with the team, as part of two tenures, and team president Brad Stevens has been there for it all.
Like with the Suns, it wasn't an overnight process for players to get to this level of confidence and trust. Smart and Brown had their moments with each other, and there were stretches when Tatum and Brown looked like they might not fit. Horford walked out the door to the rival Philadelphia 76ers in 2019, dealing the team a setback at the time.
Udoka played a major role in bringing them together last season, only to have that dashed suddenly ahead of training camp. Yet the Celtics, who lost to the Golden State Warriors in six games in the Finals last season, have never played a more beautiful brand of basketball. They're sharing the ball in the half court, slashing the turnovers that plagued them at times in last year's playoffs and doing it all under Mazzulla.
"Joe has the same messaging all the time," said Tatum, who is having a career season averaging 31 points and eight rebounds.
"Every time we come into film, he shows this video or picture of a sand castle. And the metaphor, you build the best sand castle on vacation and when the tide comes up, it's going to wash it away.
"Basically, today was a good game, we won, but when we go to film tomorrow or Friday, we've got to build another sand castle. And it's a little cheesy. But it's something that we've bought into."
Disappearing sand or not, it's working.
The Celtics have the most efficient offense in league history at the moment, with former Indiana Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon fitting into a team now filled with great shooting while providing some fresh ball handling. It has covered for their defense, which has slipped a little without Williams, who has just recently returned to 5-on-5 work during practice.
"We just got a really great group of selfless guys on this team that just want to win," Tatum said.
Resiliency doesn't show up in the standings. While it's an important trait, these two contending teams will need more if they want to see each other in the postseason.
Both are facing fresh tests at the moment. The Suns have dropped two of their past three games, their defense ranks No. 17 since Thanksgiving, and injuries might have caught up with them a little. The Celtics are at the start of a four-game West Coast trip that includes stops at Golden State and in Los Angeles (Clippers on Dec. 12 and Lakers on Dec. 13) that will be their biggest challenge of the season yet.
But the perseverance through this season's many distractions has built a world of confidence within both title contenders.
"There aren't any challenges that are daunting to us. If it's injury, if it's external situations, back-to-backs, tough one-point losses, they don't affect our psyche," Suns team president James Jones said.
"Our guys all come in, they work, and they show up in big moments."