Boston’s offensive balance hit a new level Wednesday night – a level that the franchise hadn’t reached in nearly 37 years.
During their 144-119 blowout of the Sacramento Kings, five different Celtics players scored 20 or more points, marking the fifth such occurrence in franchise history and the first since Jan. 13, 1987.
Amazingly, the feat was accomplished while two of Boston’s top six rotation players – Jayson Tatum and Al Horford – were on the sideline. On top of that, it took place on the second night of a back-to-back, as the C’s bounced back from a tough loss at Golden State 24 hours prior.
Jaylen Brown and Derrick White led the charge with 28 points apiece. Kristaps Porzingis logged 24 points, nine rebounds, and six blocks after sitting out the first leg of the back-to-back. Jrue Holiday poured in a season-high 21 points to go along with 10 rebounds, eight assists, and two steals. And Payton Pritchard added 20 points while knocking down six 3-pointers.
Together, that fantastic fivesome erupted for 121 points on 41-of-72 (56.9 percent) shooting, including 19-of-33 (57.6 percent) from long range.
“We were just playing the right way,” said White. “We were getting good looks and knocking them down, playing up and down. They play fast and we want to play fast too, so it was a fun game.”
White followed his 30-point effort against the Warriors with another All-Star-caliber performance. He was cooking from the start in Sacramento with a 16-point first quarter and became just the fourth NBA player in the play-by-play era to log five made threes and three blocked shots in a first half. He finished the game 10-of-13 from the field, including 6-of-9 from deep, handed out seven assists, and blocked three shots.
After the game, Joe Mazzulla was straight to the point in his assessment of White’s play of late. “He is an All-Star,” the head coach stated.
“His teammates are empowering him, he’s playing with a lot of confidence, and it’s one of the reasons why we feel so comfortable with him at the point is because of what he can do.”
Brown was a ball of energy the whole night, throwing down dunk after dunk, including this poster on Trey Lyles:
Porzingis had a magnificent return game, as he became the third player in Celtics history to log at least 24 points, nine rebounds, and six blocks in a game, joining Robert Parish (eight times) and Kevin McHale (three times).
“He’s unreal,” White said of KP. “He’s a matchup nightmare, protecting the paint for us. He does a little bit of everything for us.”
Pritchard made history as well, as he logged a franchise-record eighth career game with at least five made threes off the bench.
And lastly, we have to pile on some praise for Holiday, who had his best game of the season. No Celtic has sacrificed more in their role than Holiday, so to see him come two assists shy of a 20-point triple-double was fulfilling to witness.
“He’s still fitting into what his identity is. He’s playing a completely different role than he has on a different role than he has on other teams,” said Mazzulla. “So I just enjoy when he makes progress like that. It’s really fun to watch him play.”
Seeing such a prolific, yet balanced offensive display made it one of the more fun games to watch all season. And the Celtics will have to keep it up as they head into Los Angeles Saturday afternoon to face off against a Clippers team that’s riding a league-best nine-game winning streak.
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