Midway through the fourth quarter of the Celtics’ rout of the Trail Blazers on Sunday, Payton Pritchard got the ball in transition for a break away opportunity. There wasn’t a defender in front of him and Boston was in cruise control with a 10-point lead.
A low roar from the TD Garden crowd waited in anticipation for PP to throw it down. His teammates urged him from the sidelines. Instead, Pritchard modestly laid it up and finished the game with 20 points and eight assists — another strong performance in arguably the best three weeks of his career.
“Payton be talking all the trash about all that bounce he got and how athletic he is…he had a perfect opportunity right there and we seen what he did,” Jaylen Brown told NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin after the game. “I’ll tease him about that, but Payton is a dawg. It’s great to see him playing well right now.”
It’s not as if Pritchard hasn’t showboated in the past. He lit up Summer League after his solid rookie season and scored 92 points in a Pacific Northwest Pro-Am, but it’s been his steady development that has ultimately turned heads. A strong showing at Team USA workouts last August and his growing role with the Celtics are proving Payton right; given a chance, Pritchard can play.
“In the NBA when you have a clear-cut role and you have expectations and you have stuff that you can just build and build and build on, it makes the environment easy to just continue to learn and get better,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said of Pritchard’s mindset throughout the season.
After contributing to a Finals run in his sophomore season, Pritchard didn’t play much last year as the fourth guard in a rotation that included Marcus Smart, Malcolm Brogdon, and Derrick White. At the trade deadline, he was frank about wanting a trade away from Boston to find more playing time.
Instead, Smart and Brogdon were effectively dealt for Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. Those trades and a four-year, $30 million extension gave Pritchard the opportunity he was looking for.
“He’s also grown as a player — ‘I’m just not going to be defined by this. I can affect the game with ball pressure, defensive rebounding, offensive rebounding, pushing the pace in transition,’” Mazzulla continued. “So, he takes pride in situational basketball and he takes pride in finding any way to impact the game and that’s big for us.”
For Pritchard, the situation — the moment — is now. Over the last three weeks and more importantly, with the playoffs on the horizon, Pritchard is in the best stretch of basketball in his career. Since March 17th, he’s the only Celtic to appear in all twelve games, averaging 14.3 points (on 40.3% from behind the arc) and 6 assists (with less than one turnover) in nearly 30 minutes a game.
“Anytime he steps on the floor, he’s competing at the highest of levels. I’ve really enjoyed watching him grow as a player and as a leader,” Mazzulla said before tip-off.
If Al Horford is the Celtics’ “sixth starter,” Pritchard has become the traditional 6th man as a game manager/streaky scorer/defensive pest.
