After a subpar performance in Saturday’s loss at Minnesota, Celtics guard Payton Pritchard was thankful to have a chance to redeem himself the next day, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Pritchard responded with one of his best shooting nights of the season, finishing with 42 points while connecting at 15-of-22 from the field and sinking six three-pointers in a victory at Cleveland.
“I just wanted to come out tonight after a disappointing night before and kind of redeem myself and help the team win,” he said. “Hopefully I can continue this and catch a rhythm. I’m not saying every night’s going to be scoring, but be efficient and help the team win.”
Pritchard carried the offense despite being in foul trouble for much of the game. He made an early statement by drilling his first three-pointer nine seconds into the contest, then contributed 15 points in the fourth quarter as Boston held off a late Cavaliers rally. He helped to secure the 117-115 victory with a pair of late free throws.
“I’m a competitor and sitting in my room last night and this morning, you can either fold and give into it,” Pritchard told reporters before the game. “But for me, today I’m going to come out and give everything I’ve got and not second guess anything. I’m going to treat it like it’s a summer day in the gym, just me.”
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Neemias Queta and Derrick White were both given the night off to recover from injuries with Boston playing the second game of a back-to-back and entering a busy part of its schedule, Washburn states in a separate story. Queta has a sprained left ankle, and White is dealing with a right calf contusion. The Celtics have games Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and coach Joe Mazzulla indicated that more rotation players could be rested during that stretch. “I think that’s where we talk about playing everybody comes into play and, you know, just relying on the depth of those, especially the young guys,” he said. “So that’s why I think it’s important everyone comes into the game ready to impact. And so that’s the case (Sunday). I think it will be over the next week or so, and points in time throughout the season. So trying to make that a strength of ours, just, you know, by the guys that we have available.”
- Jaylen Brown has been frustrated by a lack of free throw attempts, Washburn adds. Brown entered Sunday’s game eighth in the league in scoring at 28.8 PPG, but he was 27th in free throw rate at 6.3 per night. Mazzulla said he supports Brown’s position, but won’t be submitting tape to the league to show examples of non-calls.
- With Queta unavailable, Xavier Tillman delivered nine points, six rebounds, three steals and a block in his first start of the season, per Souichi Terada of MassLive. It was a rare appearance for Tillman, who had only played one five-minute stint during the previous 11 games. “X is the ultimate professional,” Mazzulla said. “Whether he plays every game or he misses 10 games, I have a level of trust that he’s going to go out there and he’s going to execute and he’s going to do exactly what we want. That’s really hard to do in this league. You can’t take a guy like that for granted. He works. He’s always ready.”
I remember critics last year or the year before saying Coach Mazzulla didn’t play his roster, didn’t develop our young talent, was inflexible, etc. But we see just the opposite this season. He’s exactly the coach we need for this job.
Any coach in the current NBA climate with 6 players capable of shooting 40% from 3 would have them shoot all the 3s. The narrative surrounding this great coach is crazy! Bunch of couch commander turds!! lol
Except the Celtics shoot more threes than any most any other team.
Still down from where they were last year.
I know. What point are you trying to make? You say “any coach” would do it. But they don’t.
Celtics are 16th in three point percentage and 3rd in three point attempts. link to nba.com Sounds like a dude who sticks with a strategy that most coaches don’t follow. Wouldnt you say?
When you look at the numbers and see that there’s plenty of other teams averaging close to the same amount of 3 attempts I’d say it seems like most of the league shoots a lot of 3s these days so no. I’d say it’s a common strategy.
I didn’t say or mean anything about the Celtics shooting threes. My point is Coach Mazzulla is using his WHOLE ROSTER this season. He’s DEVELOPING Hugo, Jordan, Baylor, Luka, Minott, Tilman, Amari all at once this season with the idea a couple of them or more will be solid rotational or better players by the end of this season. All while winning more games than anyone believed. He’s also getting the whole roster used to playing with all types of rotations and combinations. Critics used to say he only played his top guys but they can’t say that anymore. Coach Mazzulla is coaching differently because that’s what’s needed. Doing a great job!
Both Js still don’t get love from the officials compared to other so called stars, nothing new. Maybe I should have a meltdown x 10. I’m sure showing my emotional insecurities and poor mental state repeatedly will get other posters on side. If not, oh well. They don’t know ball and are all cowards anyways.
Lol