The Boston Celtics looked anything but rusty in its first game back from the All-Star break Thursday night, benefiting from an impressive offensive showing that included a game-high 28 points off the bench from Payton Pritchard.
The Celtics saw six different players finish in double figures in the scoring column, and connected on 25 three-pointers on their way to a 124-104 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Pritchard, a clear frontrunner for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award, was responsible for eight of those three-pointers in what was his third-career game with eight or more treys.
“He’s unbelievable,” Jayson Tatum said of Pritchard, who currently leads the NBA in points off the bench. “What he brings to this team on a given night, especially off the bench. We got a few weeks left, but he got to be Sixth Man of the Year.”
Tatum — fresh off a night-high 21 points during last weekend’s All-Star Games — recorded his fourth-career triple double, finishing with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Fellow All-Star Jaylen Brown led Boston’s starters with 20 points, six rebounds and six assists, followed by Kristaps Porzingis (17 points), Derrick White (16 points, 10 rebounds), and Al Horford (11 points).
“We just did a good job of getting to our spacing,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters after the game. “Making the right read versus the coverage, finding the two-on-one, and taking the right shots. It’s important to do that against a team like this.”
The win was Boston fourth in a row and second straight against the 76ers. And unlike the last time the teams met, when the Celtics erased a 26-point deficit on its way to a 118-110 victory, Mazzulla’s team was clicking from the start.
Boston connected on 11 of its first 16 attempts from beyond the arc, and benefited from a 15-6 run led by Pritchard and Luke Kornet (six points) to take a 16-point lead early in the second quarter. The Celtics lead ballooned to as many as 29 points in the third, proving too much for Philadelphia’s Big Three in Paul George (17 points), Tyrese Maxey (16 points), and Joel Embiid (15 points).
Though the game was played inside Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center, it was hard not to notice waves of green in the stands and audible “Let’s go Celtics” chants on the TNT nationally televised broadcast.
“It’s always awesome to see the support on the road — we have the best fans in the world,” Pritchard said when asked about Celtics fans in attendance. “Joe talks about it all the time: it’s just a privilege to be able to play in an organization and a fan base like this. Definitely thankful, and hopefully we can keep winning and bring home another one.”
The Celtics will look to win their fifth straight game Sunday night when they welcome a New York Knicks team to town its beaten twice this season — and handedly.
Boston dealt the Knicks a 23-point loss in the teams’ season opener Oct. 22, followed by a 27-point defeat earlier this month in New York. The Knicks have played well since that contest, however, and head into Sunday’s rematch fresh off three-straight wins.
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