Celtics hit 29 threes, lock No. 2

Boston locked up the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed on April 10 by turning a regular-season finale weekend into a long-range shooting show against New Orleans. (nba.com) The Celtics beat the Pelicans 144-118 at TD Garden and tied the National Basketball Association single-game record with 29 made three-pointers. Sam Hauser scored 24 points and hit eight threes, while Jaylen Brown added 23 points and Payton Pritchard finished with 21 points and 10 assists. (espn.com) Boston went 29 for 59 from behind the arc, after making 17 threes in the first half and 25 through three quarters. The Celtics matched the 29-threes mark they set against New York on October 22, 2024, a record also reached by Milwaukee in 2020 and Memphis on April 6, 2026. (nba.com) The seeding piece was just as important as the shooting total. Boston’s win secured second place in the East with one game left, keeping the Celtics ahead of New York in the standings and guaranteeing home-court advantage in a first-round series. (nba.com) That position shapes the bracket immediately. With the SoFi Play-In Tournament set to start April 14 and the National Basketball Association playoffs opening April 18, Boston’s first-round opponent will come from the play-in field rather than the top six seeds. (nba.com) The game also underscored how Boston wins when its offense spreads the floor. The Celtics set the league record for three-point attempts in a season in 2024-25, and this roster still leans on volume shooting from Brown, Hauser, Pritchard, Derrick White and big men who can pass into open looks. (nba.com) New Orleans had little answer for that barrage. The Pelicans allowed 17 Boston threes before halftime and had already given up 25 by the end of the third quarter, after allowing no more than 24 in any previous game this season. (nola.com) Boston entered the night needing one more win to remove any doubt about second place after a loss to the Knicks on April 9 kept the race open for another day. The Celtics then answered with one of their cleanest offensive games of the season and moved to 55-26, while New York sat at 53-28. (masslive.com) (espn.com) Pritchard said the locker room took in “the honor of reaching a top seed” before turning back to the playoffs. Boston got its seed, matched the record book again, and now gets a few days to wait for the bracket to catch up. (espn.com)