The Suns’ Amare Stoudamire, center, loses the ball between the Celtics’ Kevin Garnett, left, and Paul Pierce last night.

AP / Winslow Townson

BOSTON — Thoughts of spring flowers, steamy June afternoons and a spot in The Finals were in the air last night at the Garden. It all sounded pretty good to the Boston Celtics.

The surging Celts say they’re ready for a sprint to the finish line in the final few weeks of the regular season and they clearly own an eye for the upcoming playoffs. While navigating the Eastern Conference won’t be easy, the Celtics continued their recent mastery of the best in the West with a 117-97 thumping of the Phoenix Suns last night.

The Suns came to town with the requisite star power that’s reserved for marquee NBA playoff nights. Steve Nash. Amare Stoudamire. The newly acquired Shaquille O’Neal. Few teams in basketball own luminaries like those.

But the Suns could not match up with the Celtics. The East’s top team struggled only in the second quarter and blitzed the Suns the rest of the way for a win that left the visitors impressed.

“Against a team like this in this building you can’t make a lot of mistakes,” said the O’Neal. “We made too many mistakes, too many turnovers (21) against a great team. In this building, you have to do everything right.”

The Celtics flashed the balance that’s come to define the team this season. Kevin Garnett, who heard loud chants of “MVP, MVP” ringing in his ears while shooting a pair of fourth-quarter free throws, led the Celts with 30 points. Paul Pierce owned the fourth quarter, swishing jumpers and knifing his way to the basket for 12 of his 27 points.

But it was the so-called fringe players who also helped carry the Celtics to their 56th win. All five starters scored in double figures, Rajon Rondo was outstanding and James Posey and Eddie House hit big shots off the bench as the Celts shared the ball smoothly with 27 assists on 45 field goals.

Boston let a 33-20 first-quarter lead slip away in the second period as the Suns cranked up their running game and raced to a 57-57 halftime tie. But a recommitment to defense held the Suns to 16 third-quarter points and turned the game in Boston’s favor.

“We didn’t change a thing,” Pierce said of the third-quarter defense. “We did things we’ve done all year. We just had to do them a little bit harder.”

The Celtics needed a superlative effort to hold the Suns in check. Phoenix owns one of the smoothest-running teams in basketball with Nash (12 points, 9 assists) as the game’s pre-eminent point guard and Stoudamire (32 points, 6 rebounds) a running forward who scores in bunches. Stoudamire poured in 22 first-half points and got Garnett and Kendrick Perkins into foul trouble.

But the Celts regrouped. A 73-69 lead grew to 80-69 in a matter of seconds, with Posey canning a corner 3-pointer as Stoudamire slammed into him. His free throw made it a four-point play. Point guard Rajon Rondo then laid a slick dribble crossover on Nash and scooted in for a layup. The third quarter ended with the Celtics up, 84-73, and a heavy one-two dose of Pierce and Garnett knocked the Suns out early in the fourth.

Both teams clearly enjoyed the matchup of heavyweights. Before the game, Suns coach Mike D’Antoni said, “Three of the best on one side, a lot of guys on the other. It’s a high-level game. It’s all good.”

The Celtics lost at Phoenix last month, 85-77, just after the massive O’Neal was acquired from Miami in a trade for Shawn Marion. The Suns are just 13-10 since the trade as they integrate the big man into their lineup. It’s an adjustment both on and off the court.

“We had a little buzz going, anyway, but Shaq only enhanced it. He’s coming along,” said D’Antoni.

Can these two teams hook up in June? Will we see the sport’s final show come down to a mid-June battle alternating between spring in Boston and the desert heat? It sure seems possible.

The Suns are a good team to ask. They’ll have a fight on their hands out West, but they’ve just seen the best in the East. They lost at Detroit (110-105) Monday night and were knocked around by the Celts last night. Nash rated the Celtics-Pistons “a tossup.” O’Neal agreed. “Different styles. In order to come out of the East they’re going to have to go through each other, no doubt about that.”

The Celtics have beaten virtually every major Western power of late.

They turned heads with a Texas sweep through San Antonio, Houston and Dallas, and now they’ve thumped the Suns.

kmcnamar@projo.com