Payton Pritchard, the silent assassin
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown get all the attention, and rightfully so, but the secret to this team’s defense is their depth. Take Tatum and Brown off the team and it may well still be a playoff team. On any given night, there are seven players who can score twenty-plus points.
In particular, the Celtics have someone on the bench that would be the leading scorer on over half the teams in the NBA. In fact, Payton Pritchard could probably be a top five scorer in the league if he played on another team like the Wizards or Nets.
His scoring prowess was on full display last night against the Chicago Bulls. Pritchard put on a shooting display for the ages in the fourth quarter.
Not only did Pritchard score 19 points in the fourth quarter alone, but he did it all in the first seven minutes of the quarter. He made five three-pointers during that span, but also managed to score on penetrations to the hoop, get offensive rebounds, and distributed the ball to other scorers.
Pritchard has been adept at scoring a lot of points while playing limited minutes. But, against the Bulls, he got extended playing time in the second half due to a foot injury to starting point guard, Derrick White.
Pritchard ended up with 29 points in 29 minutes after having 20 points in 26 minutes the night before against the Clippers. Pritchard was 13-for-21 from three-point range combined in both games.
Remarkably, despite coming off the bench, Pritchard is fifth in the NBA in three-pointers made. He is tied with the greatest three-point shooter in NBA history, Steph Curry, for the league lead in three-point shooting percentage at 44.4% among players who have attempted at least eight three-pointers per game.
Does Pritchard’s success this season surprise him? No.
He exuded a not-so-quiet confidence in his post-game press conference. He says he is as confident in his ability after the Bulls’ game as he was after he went scoreless in four games in a row at this point last year. He says confidence has never been an issue with him.
There are, and have been, many NBA superstars who were more interested in other things other than basketball. Not Pritchard. He lives, eats, and breathes basketball.
There are videos online of Pritchard walking through random neighborhoods and playing basketball with anyone that he would encounter at any outside basketball court. In one video, he is playing one-on-one and posting up a young boy.
That is who Pritchard is. I picture him sleeping with a basketball. He, genuinely, loves the game and is constantly working to improve his game. It harkens back to another Celtic sharpshooter and legend from almost a half century ago who put basketball above all else. That player's name was Larry Bird.