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Payton Pritchard, Celtics’ bench handles Hornets with relative ease: 7 takeaways
Sunday’s game against the Wizards starts at 1 p.m. It will be Mike Gorman’s final call on the NBC Sports Boston broadcast.
The Celtics put together an impressive performance without any of their top six players available on Friday, blowing out the Hornets 131-98 in their penultimate game of the regular season.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Before the game, Joe Mazzulla told reporters Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard and Luke Kornet would start, along with two mystery players. Those two proved to be Svi Mykhailiuk and Jaden Springer.
It’s not clear whether the starters will play at all on Sunday, but our guess would be no, since the cardio benefits would be minimal anyway, given that there will be nearly a week off anyway due to the play-in tournament. There’s very little to gain, and a lot to lose.
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2. Also, Payton Pritchard might be able to hold it down single-handedly again. He has really gotten good.
Pritchard had his biggest of the season to date on Friday, dropping 31 points to go with 11 assists and putting his full bag on display — 3-pointers, hard line drives to the basket, pull-up jumpers and wickedly fast crossovers. When he plays freely, he tends to excel.
“Any night it could be different [for Pritchard],” Joe Mazzulla said. “It could be shooting, it could be ball-handling, it could be defense, it could be rebounding, and then he really takes pride in game management. End of quarters, start of quarters, scanning the floor, so it’s been really good to watch him play.”
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Pritchard, whose 31 points were a career-high, said his playing time has helped “a lot.”
“I think in the past, a lot of the time it wasn’t necessarily for me to be like a point guard or even like a playmaker. It was really to try to come in and hit some 3s and bring energy defensively, rebounding, stuff like that,” he said. “I think my role has definitely grown a little bit this year. With that, I’ve grown and been better at playmaking. But just making the game easier for myself, but also my teammates.”
Pritchard is also on track to accomplish a pretty impressive feat: On Sunday (assuming nothing weird happens in the next 36 hours), he will play in his 82nd game of the season. Given that he asked for a trade last year due to a lack of playing time, this season’s turnaround is noteworthy.
“The journey for me, last year, in my second year of times where I didn’t play at all and how frustrating that is and how much that hurt at times, but it just fueled me to keep working,” he said. “And for this year to come and play 82 games and be a part of the best team in the NBA and try to do something special, it feels good.”
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Pritchard’s potential is hard to pin down — he dominates against second units, and he often shows flashes of starter-quality talent in his rotation minutes. He can shoot, score off the bounce, distribute and control the game out of the pick-and-roll. He’s short with short arms, but he’s so competitive and strong that his size doesn’t really turn him into a target on the defensive end.
Could Pritchard move up in the rotation? Could he be a starter someday? A lot would need to happen, but we’re not ready to rule it out. The Celtics will soon have a prohibitively expensive roster that could contend for multiple titles but might not be sustainable. Pritchard is on an affordable contract, and he can really hoop.
3. Friday was the Celtics’ fan appreciation night, which was a little funny, because nothing says “appreciation” quite like watching the back half of the rotation and the top half of the Maine Celtics (who arrived from Oklahoma City earlier in the day after a layover in Atlanta) play out the string.
On the other hand, the back half of the rotation and the Maine Celtics team put on quite a show, which the starters probably would not have done if Thursday’s debacle against the Knicks was any indicator. On Friday, the ball moved beautifully, the offense executed at a high level, the defense was on a string, and the Stay Ready group hustled like crazy — winning “the margins,” as Mazzulla likes to put it.
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“I thought the guys were well-connected on the defensive end, and they did a really good job crashing,” Mazzulla said. “We had 16 offensive rebounds, which helped us control the shot margin. So I think regardless of who you’re playing — and only six turnovers. So those things, that’s winning basketball.”
4. Neemias Queta finished with 16 points, six boards, five assists and two steals in 18 minutes. Two of his points and one of his rebounds came on this play.
Queta signed a multi-year deal earlier this week, converting his two-way contract into a full-time one.
“I definitely feel grateful for that,” he said. “It’s something I’ve been working toward for a very long time and it’s very fulfilling [that] I’m able to do it at this point of the year when the team is doing so good, and being able to help the team in the late run in the playoffs is something I want to be able to do.”
5. Friday’s game gave the Celtics a chance to watch rookie Jordan Walsh at the NBA level, and he finished with eight points on 3-for-4 shooting, 2-for-3 from behind the arc.
“Young players with his potential have to be defined by defense,” Mazzulla said. “I thought he did a great job on [Davis] Bertans in the first half, and I thought he did a really good job just defensively in general, whether he was on the ball or off the ball. So I can see a significant approach towards growing in his defense.”
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6. The Maine Celtics have a chance to win the G-League championship on Monday. Mazzulla will be in attendance as they play the finale in Portland.
“I think it’s just a testament to the coaching staff, the front office, the players, and it shows the continuity amongst the organization, which is kind of what we’re looking for,” Mazzulla said. “So those guys have played really well any time they’ve come up for us, and they are doing a heck of a job down there.”
Maine’s best players might be a little weary. Queta, Walsh, J.D. Davison and Drew Peterson all played 12 or more minutes Friday after their game on Thursday, and they are likely to play more minutes on Sunday. That would make Monday’s championship their fourth game in five nights.
Queta explained why playing in Friday’s game was important.
“Being able to come out on the floor and play meaningful minutes on the NBA court is something we value a lot, and it’s going to be important for our development long term,” he said. “So the more minutes we can play and be able to contribute to winning, the [happier] we can be.”
Still, Queta believes Maine can finish the job.
“It would be really cool,” he said. “All the guys put in the work through the whole year for one goal and one goal only, that was to win the championship. We’re just one win away at this point. We’re pretty confident about it and we’re just gonna go about it like any other day and just try and hope it goes our way.”
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7. Sunday’s game against the Wizards starts at 1 p.m. It will be Mike Gorman’s final call on the NBC Sports Boston broadcast. Expect it to be pretty emotional.
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