Pritchard, White Score Big for Celtics – Down three starters, no problem. The Celtics showed why they are the favorites to repeat as champions on Wednesday night.
Without the services of three of their best players, Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, who all sat against a surging team in the West, Portland Trail Blazers, yet the Boston Celtics still pulled out a 128-118 victory over one of the NBA’s hottest teams. They did so thanks in large part to the remarkable shooting exhibition from Payton Pritchard and Derrick White. Pritchard buried 10 3-pointers while White added nine of his own, giving them a combined total of 19. That is the gold standard, setting a new NBA record for most 3-pointers made by a pair of teammates. While other duos had reached 18 3s before, there had never been two teammates to each sink at least nine of them in a game. White and Pritchard have now done it.
NBA history is good, but when you consider Boston’s elite place within it, team records are not nearly as impressive. White and Pritchard set a few of those as well. Their 84 points are the most any two Celtics have ever combined to score, and they are the first set of Boston teammates ever to top 40 points apiece as Pritchard poured in 43 and White added 41.
“I think the work over time has built up to supreme confidence,” Pritchard said. “Then having my teammates and coaches to have the confidence in me now to allow me to have nights like this. … It just builds and builds and finally you see it on nights like this.”
It was even sweeter for Pritchard personally because the Oregon native did it against the team he grew up cheering for.
“It’s always fun playing the Blazers,” Pritchard said.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhite said drilling three consecutive triples in the second quarter was what got him into a rhythm.
“Credit to my teammates who kept finding me in good positions, and I was able to stay hot,” he said.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said the night Pritchard and White had was a direct result of their supreme work ethic.
“They were tremendous,” Mazzulla said. “The way those two played shows a lot about who they are. … We’re lucky to have them, and it was a lot of fun to watch them do that.”
Only six players have had 40-point, 10-rebound, five-assist games this season. The first five are All-Stars: Tatum, Orlando Magics Paolo Banchero, Denver Nuggets Nikola Jokic, Los Angeles Lakers Luka Doncic and Milwaukee Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo. The sixth now is Pritchard.
The Celtics have not been quite as dominant on the offensive end this season as they were last year. They have fallen all the way down to No. 3 on the offensive leaderboard, for example, but proof is in the pudding and on Wednesday they showed just how dangerous this team still is. Even with three starters sidelined, the Celtics have enough firepower to set records. That should put fear into every team they face in the postseason, when they will most likely be back at full strength.
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Harden Scores First 50-Point Game with Clippers – ‘Big Game’ James turns back the clock. James Harden sitting in fourth place on the all-time leaderboard for most 50-point games makes all the sense in the world. Arguably, he has been the NBA’s most lethal one-on-one scorer for more than a decade now. He has captured three scoring titles in his time with the Houston Rockets. These are the attributes one would expect out of a 50-point scorer.
What is even more surprising, however, is that all 23 of his 50-point games came with the Rockets, until Wednesday night.
He won Sixth Man of the Year for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012 but never scored 50 points in a game for them. The Brooklyn Nets gave up seven years’ worth of first-round picks for him, but did not get a 50-point outburst out of him either. Not even the Philadelphia 76ers, run by Harden’s Houston general manager Daryl Morey, could squeeze any juice or a 50-point effort out of him.
But now, his hometown team, the Los Angeles Clippers, can say they have done so. On Wednesday, those Clippers, losers of six of their past seven coming into the contest, needed an offensive explosion to survive the Detroit Pistons with Kawhi Leonard sidelined. Harden gave them one, scoring 50 on the dot to reach the milestone for the first time since December 2019 and 24th time in his career, as the Clippers prevailed 123-115.
“To see him come out and score 50 on a back-to-back, at the age of 35, just says a lot about him,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “And competing every night and playing for 38 minutes again on the back-to-back. But we needed every bit of it.”
In typical Harden fashion, a big chunk of his points came at the free-throw line (16), in the paint (16) or from behind the arc (18). It was an effort the Clippers needed as they attempt to claw their way back into the top six in the Western Conference and avoid the play-in tournament.
Harden played 38 minutes but said the heavy workload did not take a lot out of him.
“I can do it. It’s not like it’s my first time,” he said.
Given the more than five years that have elapsed since his last 50-piece, the odds of Harden scoring 50 again are slim.
If he does manage to do so again, though, he would tie Kobe Bryant for third place on the all-time NBA list with 25. That is probably as high as he could realistically climb, as No. 2 Michael Jordan has 31 50-point games.
If by some miracle he reached Jordan, he would be absolutely capped at No. 2. Why? Because Wilt Chamberlain scored 50 points in a game an astonishing 118 times, nearly four times as often as anyone else did. That is what happens when you average 50 points per game for an entire season.
Whether he finishes fourth, third or second on the list, Harden’s resume as an all-time scorer has long been cemented. Wednesday was just a cherry on top of the sundae, a chance for him to show the basketball community that he has still got game even at 35 years old.
