Celtics
“This morning, I literally circled his name”
Payton Pritchard. Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images
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Payton Pritchard scored 28 points in 28 minutes coming off the bench in the Celtics’ win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night.
Pritchard went 8 of 12 from 3-point range, tying the franchise record for most threes made off the bench in a single game.
Bucks coach Doc Rivers said something told him to watch out for Pritchard before the game.
“Payton Pritchard is here. Honestly, it’s so funny but it’s not. This morning I literally circled his name,” Rivers said. “It’s like this guy comes in and he changes the game. I don’t know if you remember last year, but we had six points ahead and he came in and changed the whole game He did it again tonight He shot their three ball.
Pritchard worked his buzzer-beater magic once again Monday night, sinking a step-back 3-pointer in the final seconds of the third quarter to give the Celtics an eight-point lead heading into the fourth.
Television cameras showed Rivers hunched over in disbelief after Pritchard made the shot.
“We just had to challenge him in the middle,” Rivers said of his reaction. “We talked about it this morning. At the end of the quarter, he always tries to get a good stop. We went through that. And so, it wasn’t a reaction from Pritchard. That was more my reaction. It’s something we covered, we were there and we let it go.
“When it went right, I didn’t know it was going in,” Rivers said. “But I just didn’t think good things were going to happen. And that’s not the case.
Pritchard said buzzer beaters can hit like a punch to the gut, which is why he takes them. The momentum of a brand is “crazy,” he said.
“I just live for those moments with the clock ticking away and I think there were about six seconds left,” Pritchard said. “So just to get to a point and restart, I fade away in those moments and let it fly. Obviously this works most of the time for me.
Pritchard’s shot revived the Celtics’ outside play. Boston missed its first seven shots of the game. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were a combined 1 of 12 from 3-point range. Al Horford went 2 for 2 and Jrue Holiday 4 for 7, helping to increase the team’s percentage to 38 percent.
“I try to approach every game with the confidence to be aggressive,” Pritchard said. “I look for opportunities to attack, to make my shot. And then, defensively, I just pick up and be like a pest.
“Obviously I’m not the tallest person in the world, so I’m not going to be able to go low or things like that,” Pritchard added. “It’s really just a matter of the energy I have to bring coming off the bench. Some nights our starters may have low energies. It’s a long season. So I have to be responsible for bringing it that night.
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