On this day in Boston Celtics history, Celtics fans had the ill fortune — or perhaps pleasure, depending on your feelings about such things — to watch Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker put up a 70-point game while his team lost 130 – 120 to Boston in 2017.
The then-20-year-old guard joined an elite group of players who have scored at least 70 points in a game, including Elvin Hayes, Wilt Chamberlain, David Thompson, David Robinson, and Kobe Bryant. It wasn’t enough for the Kentucky product to have a historic night for his Suns, though.
Somehow, the Celtics managed to weather the offensive eruption from Booker to come away with the win.
It was the most points ever scored by a player on Boston.
“This doesn’t happen very often especially against a really good defensive team like the Boston Celtics,” Booker said at the time (via the Associated Press). “It’s a zone. It’s kind of hard to explain. I’ve been in those zones before, but never to this extent.”
The Celtics won with what would normally be a huge game from Isaiah Thomas, who had 34 points and 7 assists, and 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists from forward Al Horford.
Forward Jae Crowder also added 13 points and 10 boards, and wing Gerald Green added 15 points off the bench.
Happy birthday Earl Williams! #Celtics pic.twitter.com/bcTIYW6wJ3
— Honest☘️Larry (@HonestLarry1) March 24, 2021
On this date, former Celtics center Earl Williams was born in Levittown Pennsylvania in 1951. Williams would play at the NCAA level with the Winston-Salem State Rams, a Division II school, and was the 49th overall pick of the 1974 NBA draft for the Suns.
He would sign the Celtics after stints with the Detroit Pistons, (then)New York Nets (now, Brooklyn), and Swedish team Alvik Basket Klub, and averaged 6.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in his sole season with Boston.
Happy birthday Bart Kofoed! #Celtics pic.twitter.com/lBi05ctYiD
— Honest☘️Larry (@HonestLarry1) March 24, 2021
It is also the birthday of shooting guard Bart Kofoed, who was born on this day in Nebraska in 1964. The Omaha native was drafted out of the University of Nebraska at Kearney 107th overall in the 1987 NBA Draft (it used to have many more rounds) by the Utah Jazz.
Kofoed played just seven games in one season with the Celtics in 1992, over which he averaged 2.4 points and 1.4 assists per game as a reserve.
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