Wednesday’s Boston Celtics game had role players playing like stars.
In a home win over the Portland Trail Blazers, Celtics guards Payton Pritchard and Derrick White made some extremely unlikely history. Despite coming off the bench, Pritchard led the way with 43 points on 10 three-pointers to go along with 10 rebounds and five assists. White also put up a 40-burger of his own, finishing with 41 points on nine three-pointers as Boston beat Portland by a 128-118 final score.
That marked the first time in franchise history that two Celtics players had each scored 40 points in the same game. With 19 combined triples between the two of them, Pritchard and White also set an all-time NBA record for the most total three-pointers made by a pair of teammates in the same game.
The Pritchard-White show was aided by the fact that Celtics leading scorer Jayson Tatum did not play on Wednesday due to a shoulder issue. Two other Boston starters were also missing in Jrue Holiday (finger) and Kristaps Porzingis (illness).
But that hardly made the Splash Brothers impression by Pritchard and White any less impressive. Throughout the Celtics’ storied history, no duo — not Bob Cousy and Bill Russell, not John Havlicek and Dave Cowens, not Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, not Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, not even Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown) had ever scored 40 points each in the same game … until Pritchard and White did so.
The defending champion Celtics have had a bit more of a quiet season, sitting second in the East with a strong but not staggering record of 44-18 (which has also included some ugly losses). But it turns out that having the two-time All-Defensive selection White and the Sixth Man of the Year frontrunner Pritchard lead the way was all that Boston needed on Wednesday night.
