Derrick White and Payton Pritchard Combined for a record night from 3 -point range, helping the Celtics of traffic Cross a victory of 128-118 on the Blazers at TD Garden. White (41 points) and Pritchard (43 points) became the first pair of teammates in the NBA to make at least three pointers in the same game, as well as published individual career highs.
Pritchard almost set a franchise record with 10 attempts made of 3 points, passing through 10 of 16 from the 3 -point range. White also put a spectacular shot exhibition, which passed on 9-17 of the 3-point range. Duo shooting helped the hosts erase a six -point deficit and to push up to 25 points despite Boston playing without three headlines (Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis).
Portland made things interesting late, cutting off the 25 Boston points led to eight with three minutes in the fourth, but the Celtics struggled to stay for the second consecutive victory. Anfernee Simons had a maximum of 30 points in the Portland mishap.
The victory was Boston’s second consecutive victory in general and pushed leadership over the Knicks for seed number 2 to 3.5 games.
Then there are four to take away the Celtics victory on Wednesday night:
Derrick White makes a program: The Celtics hurt the midfield in the first half without three starters, but Derrick White increased the challenge. Despite facing one of the best defenses of the NBA last month, White made a program from the perimeter, scoring a maximum of 24 first points to help give the Celtics an 11-point pillow at halftime on their way to a maximum of 39 years. It was the highest third part of half of his career, only two points of his maximum. White made most of his damage beyond the bow, and demolished six of his nine three-point attempts in the first half, including several with a high degree of difficult, quickly erasing a six-point deficit in the first half. White had left her shooting funk for a while, but this is a master offensive performance on a night that Boston really needed.
Payton Pritchard reaffirms control of the 6th man race with a sensational outlet: Joe Mazzulla kept the 6-feet-2 guard on a reserve paper despite losing three headlines, and therefore Pritchard could remove his brand of brand fire on the bench. It was delivered next to White, publishing 18 points in the first half in 19 minutes, including 5-of-9 from 3 points before erupting for 19 points from the third quarter on his way to a career. The timely guard also added 10 high rebounds from the team showing the type of contributions that made it an indispensable member of this list of Celtics throughout the year.
Jordan Walsh has a great opportunity: The turning door of the bank wings made another stop on Wednesday night with Boston for three regular three. Joe Mazzulla returned to Jordan Walsh this time with the second leader who made his first appearance since February 26. The 6-feet-7 striker showed a strong defense against Blazers’ wings, Gritty Rebounding (six boards) and hit his first 3-point shot since January 22, gaining a lot of love from the bench. Walsh ended up playing a high season in minutes with 20 and probably won another look this week with Boston probably again at night Thursday night.
The experienced rest plan for the Celtics pays: Boston entered his busy stretch of the season with seven games at 11 nights, from Wednesday night against the Blazers. Boston chose to score the rest of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown (probably on Thursday against the 76ers), along with the rest time for the adults in Horford and Kristaps Porzingis. The movement should help Boston pick up a couple of wins in the standings while ensuring a good recovery for players. Pritchard (42 minutes) and White (39 minutes) probably deserve a night of rest also on Thursday after their historical performances.
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