close
close

Payton Pritchard’s impact on the Celtics is huge, especially one offensive rebound.

Posted on by Bobb
Payton Pritchard’s impact on the Celtics is huge, especially one offensive rebound.

CHICAGO – All shots Payton Pritchard drilled while it burns Bulls Joe Mazulla expressed a lot of love for offensive rebounding on Friday night. Celtics the defender earned during his takeover in the fourth quarter.

After Jayson Tatum After missing a free throw with four minutes remaining in Boston’s 138–129 victory, Pritchard timed his leap perfectly to beat Lonzo Ball And Nikola Vucevic to the board. The smallest guy on the court shouldn’t have gone down with that ball, but Pritchard has made a career of freeing himself from any limitations his height might have placed on him. That’s why no matter what anyone asks Mazzulla about Pritchard, the coach almost always returns to his belief that Pritchard is a complete player.

“The big thing for him is he finds different ways to impact games,” Mazulla said Friday. “He has grown as a player throughout his career. It was his shooting tonight, but the rebound he got was timely. And only his ball pressure and his defense. So he’s a complete player.”

If Mazulla says it enough, maybe everyone will understand it. But while Pritchard impacts the Celtics in other ways, the team has also asked him to become a better scorer. Before the season, Pritchard said Boston coaches told him they wanted him to play more freely. After he showed off his all-around play in a breakout campaign last season, they wanted him to be more aggressive in finding his offense. Even though all the key players from last year’s championship team were back, Mazulla was determined to find ways to improve the Celtics. Pritchard’s unleashing has already borne fruit. Already valuable in his previous role, an even bigger green light has turned him into one of the league’s brightest players – and, his teammates seem to agree, an early contender for the Sixth Man of the Year award.

Pritchard’s blossoming power was on display again Friday as he beat the Bulls with 19 points in the first 6:35 of the fourth quarter. After a slow start to the final three quarters, the Celtics trailed by four points early in the fourth when Pritchard took control. He started his streak with a 27-foot 3-pointer from the left wing. He followed up that first block by scoring on each of the Celtics’ next two possessions, first with a long 3-pointer from the other wing and then a hesitant passer. Josh Giddy.

Even at that moment, Pritchard said he didn’t realize he had entered another hot period at the start of a season full of such players.

“I really thought I was just taking good pictures,” Pritchard said. “I didn’t really realize I was on a heater or anything until I probably hit that deep heater when they switched. Vucevic was on me Zach LaVine leaned back and I hit him from deep after Sam (Hauser) slid out on the screen. That’s about how I realized that everything would work out for me.”

Pritchard finished with a season-high 29 points, including 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting in the fourth quarter. He hit five 3-pointers in the decisive period, all in a 21–10 run that turned Boston’s four-point deficit into a seven-point lead. Although he scored all but two of the Celtics’ points during this turmoil, his teammates continued to look for him time after time.

Pritchard led the Celtics after their defeat Derrick White to the sore leg. Although White did not address reporters after the game, Mazulla said a security guard told him he would be fine. White was seen walking without any type of brace on his leg in the Boston locker room.

Only a truly confident player will take on more and more responsibilities, as Pritchard does on a team full of current and former All-Stars. Pritchard, who is averaging 15.6 points per game this season, doesn’t just want the ball. He has turned himself into such a force that his most respected teammates, including Tatum and Jaylen BrownI want him to have the ball. The fourth-quarter run happened because Brown allowed it to happen. He gave Pritchard his first two 3-pointers down the stretch, then took a step back so Pritchard could ride out his hot hand.

“JB found me,” Pritchard said. “I hit two threes and then they started pressing and I got to the rim one time. So I just knew the flow was good. They pushed me so I could get what I wanted.”

At least publicly, Pritchard never doubted himself. His unwavering belief in himself led him to an All-American career at Oregon. This allowed him to immediately step into his role as the Celtics’ rookie. It kept him afloat when Malcolm Brogdon took away his minutes in 2021-22 and allowed him to bounce back next season after Boston traded Brogdon. The Celtics did this in part because they believed Pritchard could handle the backup point guard role. He has done well since then, although in trying to explain his self-belief he actually recalled his rocky start to last season.

“My confidence has always been there,” Pritchard said. “It’s funny if you go back a year, like, what were my stats and numbers? I think I was terrible. I think at the start of last year I had five games in a row where I didn’t score (he actually started the season with no goals in four of the first seven games). But it’s not like riding the lows or the highs. It’s just maintaining a balance between having a strong belief and working every day, working and getting better and better and better. Ultimately, everything will turn out well for you. So for me it’s just maintaining that confidence.”

All his teammates saw it. Pritchard has earned their trust over the years by excelling on the court not only in games, but also in practice, where he works just as hard as everyone else. Tatum said Pritchard’s tenacity stood out even when they competed against each other as teenagers.

“We were in the same high school class, so I saw that fearless, competitive nature from the time we were 13,” Tatum said. “It’s been great to see him develop into the player he is and perform effectively for a championship team. What he does is worthy of sixth man of the year for me.”

The benefits of Pritchard’s work ethic were not immediate, but continued to allow him to overcome the ups and downs of his career. The rest of the Celtics, who have witnessed his development over the years, saw it coming.

“Just seeing him work every day,” Tatum said. “You have to earn the respect of your teammates. We all had to do what was in the league before him. And you do this by showing up every day. Everyone is doing an excellent job with treatment, recovery, and going to the gym. Pi always trains on the court. In the preseason, he always plays one-on-one and tries to make extra shots. We see the work he puts in and believe he will make the right plays.”

The Celtics easily could have lost on Friday, with tough stretches in each quarter, but the first forced them to come back several times. Kristaps Porzingis said their defense was “less than ideal” and allowed the Bulls, including Vucevic, to catch fire. The big man scored 32 points on 11-of-16 shooting, including 6-of-9 from behind the arc.

Pritchard burned brightest when it mattered most.

“It was incredible to watch him play basketball at one point,” Porzingis said. “And he is capable of it. That’s why I think opposing teams usually try to stop him. When he comes in with the second unit, he is so explosive that he can turn the game around. And we need him tonight, and he showed it like I haven’t seen this season before.”

Since his release, Pritchard has consistently shown how much he deserves additional freedom. The Celtics trust him today just as much as he always trusted himself.

“I think it’s a result of hard work,” Pritchard said. “They see how many hours I put in and it brings respect from my teammates. That’s how I get respect from other people, but also how other people earn my respect is just work. That’s what I rely on. Every day I just try to get better and better and better.”

The NBA Cup drama may not be the same, but it’s still here.

After the Celtics win Sam Houser shook his head as he walked off the court, partly because of the weird shot he had just made to end the game.

With Boston’s NBA Cup hopes still alive, Mazulla called a timeout with 1.4 seconds left and the Celtics ahead by six points. Under normal circumstances, Boston would have simply let the clock run out, but the point differential matters. NBASeasonal tournament. So Mazzulla engineered a play that resulted in a corner 3-pointer for Hauser as time expired. He didn’t seem to like the idea of ​​trying to score in a game the Celtics had already completed.

“It was nice to see one of the players go through the rim,” said Houser, who missed all four of his previous 3-point attempts. “Plus, obviously it was just awkward circumstances. So, a little bit of everything.”

To add to the awkward circumstances, the Celtics had some history with the Bulls in the NBA Cup. As Boston looked to increase its point differential in the final game of last season’s group stage, Mazzulla decided to employ a highly unusual strategy: intentionally fouling. Andre Drummond leading by 29 points and leading again by 32 points in the fourth quarter. Since the Celtics were beating Chicago badly at the time, Billy Donovan took offense to Hack-a-Drummond’s decision.

“I thought Andre was in a bad situation,” Donovan recalled. “That’s it.”

Even some of the Celtics players that night didn’t like their methods, but they were just trying to play by the rules that had been set for them. To advance, they needed to win by a large margin. They just didn’t know exactly what number it would be.

“It was weird,” Hauser recalled before Friday night’s game.

The end of Friday’s Celtics win brought back those memories.

“It’s weird that the Bulls played two years in a row and we had to win by a certain number of points to try to get into this season’s tournament (group stage),” Houser said. “So there’s nothing against them. It just so happens that this is the team we played in our last Cup match.”

After failing to win their group, the Celtics will need some help to make the playoffs in this season’s tournament. They’ll keep an eye on the scoreboard Tuesday night as other teams finish their group stage schedules.

“Honestly, I still don’t know what’s going to happen,” Houser said. “So I’ll have to ask someone and then I’ll be in touch when I hear.”

(Photo of Payton Pritchard battling the Bulls’ Coby White over a loose ball: Luke Hales/Getty Images)