BOSTON — After enjoying a water bath from his teammates on the TD Garden court Wednesday night, Payton Pritchard heard an M-V-P chant as he walked through the Celtics tunnel.
Pritchard had earned the cheers with a career-high 43 points but recognized he didn’t make history by himself. So, before turning right to head for the Boston locker room, he paused briefly to embrace teammate Derrick White. With headphones on, White was still fulfilling part of his media duties with the Celtics radio broadcast. That didn’t stop Pritchard from congratulating the other star of the night.
“Good job,” Pritchard said. “Way to hoop.”
Consider that the understatement of the night. The Celtics have had Bob Cousy and Bill Russell. Sam Jones and Tommy Heinsohn. John Havlicek and Dave Cowens. Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Scores of Hall of Famers have walked through Boston, but Pritchard and White became the first Celtics teammates to score 40 points in the same game Wednesday night while carrying their team past the Trail Blazers 128-118.
“It’s unbelievable,” said White, whose 41 points were a career high. “Just the talent that we have in the history of this franchise.”
The first Celtics duo EVER to drop 40+ each 😱 pic.twitter.com/a8UWxDp9cG
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 6, 2025
History doesn’t always come with a warning. With the Celtics missing three starters in Tatum, Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday, the odds of such an outburst were longer than Luke Kornet’s arms — especially against the Trail Blazers, who entered the night with the fifth-ranked defense since the beginning of January. Boston, which scored just 10 points over the first six minutes of the first quarter, initially showed few signs of the coming onslaught.
Then Pritchard, who checked in midway through the quarter, dribbled off a screen and found a bit of room. Splash. Twenty seconds later, he caught an outlet pass from Al Horford, hurried the ball up the court and created enough space for a bold stepback 3-point attempt. It nestled through the net, giving Pritchard 6 points over his first 1:21 on the court. Three minutes later, he drained his most difficult shot attempt of the night — an off-balance fadeaway from the corner with defender Scoot Henderson close enough to smell his deodorant.
Pritchard ended the first quarter with 12 points, all on 3-pointers. White didn’t heat up immediately like his teammate but said his shot felt good on two early in-and-outs. The basket opened up from there. Pritchard finished 14-for-20 from the field, including 10-for-16 on 3-pointers. White went 14-for-26 from the field, including 9-for-17 on 3-pointers.
“Me and P were talking about it,” White said, “and it was kind of crazy. Like, we weren’t even hitting the rim, just swishes. You get hot and I felt like I was getting a lot of really good looks, and so credit to the offense that we were running and the guys for finding me.”
Even just getting 3-point attempts against Portland counts as a feat. Despite several key absences for the Celtics, the matchup promised to provide a clash basketball nerds could appreciate. Boston, on pace to set an NBA record for most 3-point attempts, hunts the long ball at every opportunity. Portland, which turned its season around partly through a commitment to limit opponents’ 3-point attempts, sells out to take away the Celtics’ favorite shot.
The Trail Blazers couldn’t take it away from Pritchard or White, who became the first teammates in NBA history to each hit at least nine 3-pointers on the same night. Pritchard, who made 10 3-pointers, all in the first three quarters, finished one shy of Marcus Smart’s Celtics record. Instead of chasing the record, Pritchard attempted only one 3-pointer in the fourth quarter.
“I didn’t even know I had 10 3s at the moment,” Pritchard said. “But I wouldn’t have gunned for it anyways because then it sets a new standard. So I have something to eventually go for and hopefully I’ll break it one day. But the biggest thing was just about getting the W. And they made a little push, so I wasn’t going to force a look that wasn’t there. I feel like that’s disrespectful to the game, disrespectful to my teammates.”
After leading by 25 points, the Celtics allowed Portland to pull within 124-116 with 2:35 left. Boston’s weak finish produced a closer final score but also allowed Pritchard and White to add to their impressive stat lines. A pull-up jumper from the right baseline with 2:11 left briefly allowed White to match Pritchard at 41 points, but Pritchard sank two free throws in the final seconds to pass his teammate. Together, they accomplished something even Tatum and Brown never have. During a win against the Cavaliers last week, Tatum and Brown combined for 83 points — the most they had ever scored together in the same game. White and Pritchard combined for 84 points.
“I’m super happy for Payton,” White said. “He probably could’ve took more shots. I took six more than him. He was unbelievable. Someone that works so hard and just plays the right way every time out there. So it’s great to have that night along with him, and just kind of both of us just trying to play the right way and do what it takes to win.”
Pritchard had another unforgettable performance against Portland, his hometown team, in December 2021. In the middle of a trying stretch of his career, Pritchard created a lasting memory by scoring 16 points over the final 4:09 of a blowout win. He took over completely enough to leave a trail of chaos in his wake.
Teammate Josh Richardson jumped onto the court after one of Pritchard’s four 3-pointers that night. The Celtics drew a technical foul for celebrating Pritchard’s long-distance flurry too vigorously. Ime Udoka, the Boston coach at the time, apologized to Chauncey Billups because the Celtics kept feeding Pritchard for shots in the final seconds of a lopsided game. Though Udoka believed the antics crossed a line, Pritchard disagreed. He offered a great description of the way he and his team acted over the final minutes of that win.
“We were free-balling it,” Pritchard said at the time. “But we were just playing ball and hitting shots.”
Every once in a while, the game becomes that easy. On a loaded Celtics roster, Pritchard doesn’t always get the chance to “free-ball it,” as he worded it back then, but with three starters out Wednesday, he hit his hometown team with another outside shooting show. This time, the Sixth Man of the Year award candidate didn’t do it in garbage time. And he had a partner in White.
“I haven’t been a part of a game like that,” Billups said. “I’ve seen some guys really get hot and catch fire, but two guys like that — I haven’t seen it.”
Pritchard, who came off the bench in the first half, joined the starting lineup after halftime. He drained five 3-pointers while scoring 19 points in the third quarter. White said he started laughing at the hot streak near the end of that quarter, “when Payton was really going crazy.” Then White took the baton from his teammate to score 12 points in the fourth. He beat the shot clock from the logo for his final 3-pointer with eight minutes left.
FROM THE LOGO pic.twitter.com/axgJYImxgY
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 6, 2025
Horford shook his head at his teammates’ exploits.
“I think Payton hit one in the third at one point,” Horford said, “and I just kind of looked at him. I’m like, ‘Man …’ And he was just so locked in. It’s great to see him when he gets in that mode. He’s just so focused, and he’s just a competitor. And then when Derrick hit the one from almost half court, I was about to sub in and it just killed me right there. Just so excited for those guys and for them to do that.”
Pritchard and White could average more points on a bad team. In Boston, they normally sacrifice touches and shot attempts to help the team win games and compete for championships. Even with the Celtics so short-handed Wednesday, Pritchard said his usual mindset didn’t change.
“Not necessarily,” Pritchard said. “Maybe I know I’m going to play a little bit more, but I go into the game just trying to make the right reads. Because tonight could have been Sam Hauser’s night and he hits 10 to 15 3s. D-White does what he does. JB could have 50. So I don’t go into any night thinking, ‘Oh, it’s my night.’ It’s just you read the game and the ball ended up finding me. Next game, the ball might not find me at all, but how am I going to impact the game?”
Together, the backcourt duo took advantage of extra opportunities that likely would have gone elsewhere if the Celtics were fully healthy. As much fun as White had Wednesday night, he said he and Pritchard “know what the bigger picture is and we know what we’re working for and what we’re working towards.” In other words, they won’t always have a chance to go off for 40 points apiece.
They made Celtics history by reaching that mark together Wednesday. After White walked into the locker room, his teammates poured water all over him, just like they had done to Pritchard moments earlier. Two water baths in the same game — heck, that might have been another record.
“It’s a regular-season game, but it’s a game where Portland has been playing really good basketball and it wasn’t a blowout type or anything like that,” Horford said. “We fought for this game. We were obviously undermanned and trying to find a way, and for them (to achieve) that kind of feat, for me, it’s unbelievable. It really is. And the way that they did it is even more impressive.”
(Photo of Payton Pritchard: Winslow Townson / Imagn Images)
