You understand the NBA is in bother when the Celtics’ fourth- and sixth-best offensive weapons drop over 40 factors in the identical sport.
That is precisely what occurred Wednesday as Derrick White (41) and
Payton Pritchard (43) scored career-highs in Boston’s 128-118 win over the visiting Path Blazers.
The sharpshooting guards set a franchise benchmark, turning into the first pair of Celtics to each score 40 points in a sport. Additionally they turned the primary teammates in NBA historical past to every sink at the least 9 threes.
Pritchard — the favorite to win Sixth Man of the Year — turned the primary bench participant in NBA historical past to document at the least 40 factors, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 10 made threes in the identical sport. Essentially the most spectacular facet is Pritchard notched these numbers and not using a turnover, one other distinctive feat in NBA historical past, per OptaStats.
Pritchard has been a flamethrower off the bench for Boston over the previous few seasons, persistently making buckets when known as upon. Final season, he sank 147 threes, which ranked fourth on the staff. This season, although, he has taken his sport to a complete new degree, rising leaps and bounds as a passer, defender and all-around participant.
The Oregon alum is averaging career-highs in factors (14.4), FG% (47.9), 3P% (42.3), 3PM (3.3) and rebounds (3.8), and already has at the least 4 video games of 10 or extra assists this season. His skill to run the second unit has allowed head coach Joe Mazzulla to relaxation his starters for prolonged intervals, a key purpose behind a comparatively wholesome Celtics roster.
Pritchard has made 203 threes from 61 video games up to now, which ranks eighth within the league. It is quite scary that three of the highest eight 3PM leaders are Celtics teammates, with White (210) rating fourth and Jayson Tatum (206) seventh forward of Pritchard. That might clarify why the Celtics lead the league in 3PM by a landslide with 1,107 threes from 62 games. The second-ranked Cavaliers have transformed on 1,005 threes in the identical quantity of video games.
