The Boston Celtics are back on track with their second consecutive win in a blowout on Monday night in Portland to the tune of 22-points in a game that Payton Pritchard started for Boston in his hometown.
Pritchard recorded his first start of the season and the 10th of his career. He nearly produced a triple-double, finishing the game with 11-points on 5-of-11 shooting, eight rebounds, and eight assists.
In fact, the first basket of the game for Boston was from Pritchard who hit a 14-foot pull up jump shot in the low post that he saved from being a turnover on a loose ball from Jayson Tatum, who was trying to push the ball back to Al Horford.
Pritchard carved out many plays as the floor general without Jrue Holiday in this game. In fact, the entire starting-five had at least four assists in this game and totaled 34 as a team.
Another play that comes to mind is right in the first quarter when two inbound passes were blocked by Portland, Pritchard got hold of the third one and had to get the ball to the halfcourt within five seconds. He executes flawlessly, driving and carving up the defense to find Luke Kornet a lob above the rim.
There was another play to end the first quarter where Pritchard went coast-to-coast in less than five-seconds to lob it up for Kornet to end the quarter.
Pritchard is averaging 8.0 points on 44.4 percent shooting from the field and 38.0 percent from behind the arc in 20.4 minutes per game off the bench. He also adds 3.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
At the end of the Portland game, Jaylen Brown said that Pritchard is a “key piece” to the Celtics.
Pritchard has played in all 64-games for the Celtics this season, the most on the team. His consistency is unmatched and the same can be said for his durability. Pritchard gives it his all in every second he’s on the court and head coach Joe Mazzulla respects that.
It was a great nod to give Pritchard the start in his hometown.
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