When Luke Kornet and Payton Pritchard checked into Thursday’s game, the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons were tied at eight apiece… halfway through the first quarter. The Cs didn’t quite look like the league’s second-best offense.
They looked sloppy and uncoordinated like they were still trying to get their legs back underneath them after a few days off.
Once Joe Mazzulla turned to his bench however, the wheels started to spin. They traded buckets with the Pistons for a few minutes, but eventually, created some separation thanks to Kornet’s simple, yet effective, set of skills.
“Big Luke’s physicality was a game-changer for us,” Mazzulla said after the win. “And then that first quarter, both ends of the floor with him.”
Anytime Mazzulla turns to Kornet, it’s almost a guarantee that the big man will deliver in the paint on both sides of the ball. He is a (Celtics) career 65% shooter from the floor, mostly from the paint, and his teammates can rely on him to sink easy looks at the rim, especially the extra looks he earns off of offensive rebounds, which is how he got himself started against Detroit.
By the time the buzzer sounded at the end of the first, Kornet had tallied eight points and three boards while helping build an 11-point lead for Boston.
“He does a great job playing off the other guys on the offensive end, and kind of saw that with the screenings, cutting and his passing and his offensive rebounds,” Mazzulla added. “So I thought his physicality really helped us there in his first stint.”
He finished the night with 12 points, seven rebounds, and one pretty assist in just 12 minutes.
Pritchard’s presence was felt a bit later in the game. He helped to balloon the Celtics’ lead up to 15 by halftime when he scored 11 of his 27 points in the second quarter.
It’s just become routine at this point for the sharpshooting point guard to come in and get buckets. His consistency this season has not only given the Cs a reliable option off their bench but has also separated him as a serious frontrunner for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award.
The recognition would be great for Pritchard, but ultimately he’s just trying to help the Celtics win games.
Thursday, that went beyond just putting the ball in the basket. Fast PP logged his first double-double of the year, dishing out 10 assists to accompany his scoring outburst. The added attention he’s now seeing from defenses isn’t slowing him down, it’s just giving him another avenue to help his squad come out on top.
“When you come off the bench here, you see the flow of the game and where you can affect it,” he told CelticsBlog. “We did our job coming in and created an energy spark & got the lead… I don’t know what our plus-minus was, but as long as we’re in the plus, then we did our job that night.”
It was a job well done for both Pritchard and Kornet against Detroit, as they were both well positive in the plus/minus category.
