Atlantic Notes: Barnes, Pritchard, Stevens, Maxey

The Raptors won Game 4 over the Cavaliers despite missing 26 of 30 three-point attempts and shooting just 32.0% from the field. That’s a feat no team in playoff history has ever accomplished, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.

It was an anomalous victory, which makes sense, because it was led by their anomalous star, Scottie Barnes. Barnes shot 6-for-15 from the field and 0-for-3 from three, yet he scored or assisted on 35 of the team’s 93 points and was everywhere defensively.

Barnes had an excellent season for the Raptors, getting his second All-Star nod while averaging 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and coming in fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Despite his play, he was not widely predicted to be the best player in the series, yet through four games, he’s been exactly that, writes Michael Grange from Sportsnet.

“He’s just a winning player, man,” said teammate RJ Barrett, who has also had a strong series. “He scores, he moves the ball, he rebounds, he defends, he does everything out there. He has a killer mentality, but I think the biggest thing right now is he is playing with force, he’s really making the defence have to guard him.”

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

• Payton Pritchard scored a playoff career-high 32 points in the Celtics‘ big Game 4 win over the Sixers. He credits the work he’s put in studying how the great players in the league maximise their advantages and skill sets. “I feel like obviously there’s genetic freaks,” Pritchard said. “I’m not one of them. But, like, LeBron (James) is a perfect example, too. He takes great care of his body daily. He makes little sacrifices. He’s talked about his sleep habits, his eating and all that. But even guys like Al Horford and Jrue Holiday, they’re able to play so long because of the habits they created.” He doesn’t drink, limits his bread and sweets, and changed his sleep routine, all in the search for peak performance.
• Brad Stevens had his work cut out for him last summer after losing nearly his entire frontcourt, along with Holiday. While the players and coaching staff deserve immense credit for turning what was thought to be a gap year into a 56-win season, the job Stevens did in identifying talent like Neemias Queta to bring into coach Joe Mazzulla‘s system is deserving of an Executive of the Year award, Chris Forsberg writes for NBC Sports Boston.
• Despite getting big man Joel Embiid back for Game 4 on Sunday, the Sixers were blown out 128-96 by Boston. Star guard Tyrese Maxey was uncharacteristically quiet in the first half, scoring seven points on just three shots. He chastised himself for his lack of aggression after the game, Brian Robb writes for Mass Live. “That absolutely can’t happen,” Maxey said. “That’s just unacceptable by me. It wasn’t meant to happen that way. We can’t win basketball games with that happening, and I take full responsibility on that one.” Maxey finished with 22 points on 14 shots, after attempting at least 20 field goals in each of the first three games.