It had been a frustrating start of the season for Payton Pritchard, but in the Celtics 117-115 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night, he finally had his breakout game.
Pritchard only had five games of 20+ points and one 30-point game before last night. Boston was missing Derrick White and Neemias Queta, so they needed someone to step up and Pritchard did just that. He scored 42 points shooting 15/22 from the field and 6/11 from three. He also added 3 rebounds and 3 assists for the C’s.
Joe Mazzulla was asked after the game what he thought of Pritchard’s performance. “He puts obviously a ton of pressure on himself,” Mazzulla said. “You just always know, in games when he is not the best version of himself, he is going to bounce back quickly. It’s the sign of a great player and he did that. He got off to a great start. You just saw a difference in his approach, his mindset and really his aggressiveness. It was a (great) game from him.”
Pritchard was aggressive throughout the game, but he was ultra aggressive coming out of the gate He scored 8 of the first 10 Celtics points, hitting 2 threes and his 1 two was a toe on the line shot.
This is just easy offense attacking Darius Garland in the pick and roll, something the Celtics were successful with all night. Payton gets a screen from Xavier Tillman and with Garland navigating the screen as poorly as he did and Evan Mobley playing a deep drop, Pritchard gets a wide open pull up and knocks it down.
The Celtics needed Pritchard to step up. Down Derrick White and Jaylen Brown scoring 41 in Saturday’s loss, Boston needed Pritchard to make his presence known, especially coming off of a 9-point performance where he shot 4/14 from the field and 1/8 from three during Saturday’s loss in Minnesota.
After the game, Pritchard talked about bouncing back with NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin. “Disappointed off of how I played last night in Minnesota,” Pritchard said. “So, I wanted to come out here and give it everything I’ve got tonight and try to pull out this win.”
Cleveland made a late run, but Pritchard hit some clutch shots and clutch free throws to make sure the Cavs did not complete the comeback.
Pritchard bullies Darius Garland down to his spot and when he gets there he pulls up and hits the tough jumper to put the Celtics back up 5 to seal the win.
It was a great game from Pritchard and the Celtics will need more of these from him this season. There have been times where Boston has been lacking offense and they will need Pritchard to be ready to step up to the plate as the season goes on.