Celtics guard Payton Pritchard drives past Washington’s Deni Avdija in the first half Sunday in Boston. Pritchard finished with 38 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds in a 132-122 win. Steven Senne/Associated Press
BOSTON — Payton Pritchard scored a career-high 38 points and the NBA-best Boston Celtics rested their entire starting lineup in a 132-122 victory over the Washington Wizards on Sunday in the teams’ regular-season finale.
Svi Mykhailiuk added 26 points and Sam Hauser had 16 for Boston, which sat Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday along with top reserve Al Horford.
Pritchard added 12 assists and nine rebounds. In last year’s final regular-season game, the 6-foot-1 Pritchard had a triple-double with 30 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, joining Larry Bird and John Havlicek as the only Celtics with at least 30 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists in a game.
He picked up his ninth rebound with 5:22 left in the game and played the rest of the way.
“If it came, I’ll take it. But I got one last year,” Pritchard said, smiling. “It wasn’t like I had pressure to get my first triple-double. I’m a pretty good rebounder. So if I get the minutes, I think I’ll be able to get another triple-double.”
The Celtics (64-18) finished with 60 or more wins for the 15th time, the most recent in 2008 when they captured the NBA title. As the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, their first-round opponent will be the winner of a final play-in game on Friday – either Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago or Atlanta.
Having lost Game 7 at home against Miami in the Eastern Conference finals last spring, anything less than a trip to the NBA Finals this year would very likely be viewed as a disappointment for the Celtics.
“The most important thing getting into a situation is having no expectations,” Boston Coach Joe Mazzulla said of the upcoming postseason. “If you study teams that have even been fortunate enough, and if we’re fortunate enough to get to a Finals, if not win it, the road there is always forgotten by the result of winning.”
The Wizards (15-67) ended their third straight season and fifth in the last six without a playoff berth. Eugene Omoruyi led them with 26 points and Jared Butler scored 22 in their sixth straight loss.
Pritchard played all 82 games this season. He scored 14 points in the final 2:19 of the opening half, connecting on all four of his 3-point attempts to give Boston a 69-59 halftime edge.
At halftime, the Celtics honored TV play-by-play announcer, Mike Gorman, who is retiring after his 43rd season calling their games. There were many tributes on the Jumbotron from former Boston players and folks around the NBA during timeouts.
PLAY-IN GAMES: Orlando blew out Milwaukee, Indiana blew out Atlanta, Philadelphia blew out Brooklyn and Miami blew out Toronto.
As a result, nothing in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference’s playoff chase changed on the final day of the regular season.
It will be eighth-seeded Miami visiting seventh-seeded Philadelphia in a play-in game on Wednesday, followed by 10th-seeded Atlanta visiting ninth-seeded Chicago in an elimination game. The Heat-76ers winner will face the No. 2 seed, New York, in the first-round of the playoffs, and the Heat-76ers loser will host the Hawks-Bulls winner on Friday night.
The winner of that game will play No. 1 seed Boston, starting April 21 at TD Garden.
“Look, this is the best time of year,” said Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra, whose team started in the play-in last season and wound up in the NBA Finals. “These kind of environments, the games, the context … you can’t expect to be easy.”
The Western Conference play-in games are Tuesday. The Los Angeles Lakers are the No. 7 seed and will play No. 8 New Orleans, while Sacramento is the No. 9 seed and will play No. 10 Golden State.
Cleveland is the No. 4 seed in the East for the second consecutive year. The Cavaliers had a chance to move to No. 2 or No. 3 with a win on Sunday and led lottery-bound Charlotte by 13 with 10 minutes remaining, but they were outscored 30-7 the rest of the way. Charlotte won, 120-110. Milwaukee, meanwhile, dropped to No. 3.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.