There are 3-point explosions then there’s the one Payton Pritchard and Derrick White went on Wednesday against the Trail Blazers.
Both Celtics guards went off all night, draining multiple 3-pointers to the tune of a new NBA record. Both guards made at least nine 3-pointers, which is the first time in NBA history teammates have eclipsed that mark in the same game.
It wasn’t just that, though. Pritchard finished with a career-high 43 points, along with 10 rebounds and five assists. He shot 14-for-20 from the floor and 10-of-16 on 3s. White put up 41 points, three rebounds and three steals, going 14-for-26 from the field and 9-for-17 on 3s. That’s a new Celtics record: White and Pritchard are the first C’s duo to both score at least 40 points in the same game.
The C’s were without three starters Wednesday, but their guards picked up the scoring slack by raining 3-pointers on the Blazers. Pritchard had already made 10 3-pointers through three quarters of play, then White just kept making his own deep shots. White’s ninth 3-pointer, which set the new NBA record, came with 8:00 left in the fourth quarter to set the NBA record.
Notably, neither guard ended up matching the franchise record for 3s in a game. Longtime Celtics guard Marcus Smart holds that mark, when he shot 11-for-22 from deep in a loss to the Suns on Jan. 18, 2020. The NBA record is held by Klay Thompson, when he made 14 3-pointers back on Oct. 29, 2018, against the Bulls. It looked like both guys had a chance to match Smart and potentially Thompson, but they ended up setting a different NBA record instead.
Pritchard already has some iconic moments in franchise history when it comes to shooting the deep ball. His halfcourt buzzer-beater in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Mavericks has already gone down in Celtics lore. Now, he gets his own unique spin to both NBA and Celtics history, along with White.
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