Payton Pritchard came off the Celtics bench to score 19 of his game-high 36 points in the first half of Friday night's 109-102 victory over the visiting Hawks Friday night at TD Garden.
Payton Pritchard came off the Celtics bench to score 19 of his game-high 36 points in the first half of Friday night's 109-102 victory over the visiting Hawks Friday night at TD Garden.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
With Jaylen Brown out of the lineup to rest a sore left Achilles, Payton Pritchard came off the bench to lead the Celtics with 36 points, including 19 in the first half, in a 109-102 victory over the Hawks Friday night at TD Garden.
Jayson Tatum had 26 points after struggling to score 5 in the first half.
Tatum started the game by hitting a 14-footer and hit a pull-up 3-pointer on his third shot, signaling perhaps his first scoring eruption of this season was imminent. It would have been a welcome bonus with Brown out, but Tatum did not score again in the opening half.
The forward missed his last eight shots, including a pair of air-balls, showing that there is still plenty of rust to knock off after his long layoff.
The Hawks, meanwhile, could not miss at the start. They made four of their first five 3-point attempts, two by Johnson to kickstart his 19-point half. The run zapped this Friday night crowd’s energy. A 3-pointer with 4:41 left by Gabe Vincent, who has been a thorn in the Celtics’ side for years, gave Atlanta a 25-9 lead, its largest of the half.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla burned his second timeout of the quarter, and the Celtics returned to the court and promptly missed their next shot. But the Celtics have been a menace on the offensive glass all season, and Luka Garza gobbled up this carom and found Hugo Gonzales for an essential 3-pointer, igniting a 10-0 Celtics run.
With 52 seconds left, Pritchard rushed upcourt and hit a 3-pointer, a deliberate move to give the Celtics three possessions in the final minute. They capitalized by scoring on all three, with Pritchard ending the quarter with a buzzer-beating layup that pulled the Celtics within 29-26.
Buzzers HATE to see Payton shooting 🚨 pic.twitter.com/pPzwXVLXqt
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 28, 2026
Pritchard’s hot streak carried over into the second quarter, when he converted four of his team’s first five field goals —two layups and two 3-pointers — to tie the score at 40. Hauser then gave the Celtics their first lead since 2-0 when he hit a 3-pointer.
But the Celtics stalled when Pritchard went to the bench with 17 points following a 13-minute stint. The Celtics committed three turnovers in the last five minutes — they had eight in the half — and the Hawks pushed back in front, 60-55, at halftime.
The Hawks stretched their lead to 8 early in the third before Mazzulla called timeout and put Pritchard back in. He promptly hit a pair of 3-pointers, with Hauser adding a third, during the 9-0 burst that transpired in just 69 seconds.
With 5:59 left, Pritchard improved to 6 for 6 from beyond the arc when he hit another from the right corner. He missed his next three 3-pointers, but found other ways to be impactful, grabbing an offensive rebound in traffic and converting a putback that helped the Celtics take an 87-82 lead to the fourth.