Photo by Michael Dwyer / AP
Payton Pritchard and the Boston Celtics had another controlled demolition against a subpar Sacramento Kings team.
After losing the first quarter, the C’s stepped on the gas, limiting Sacramanto’s Demar DeRozan to just 9/24 shooting.
Jayson Tatum was the player of the game, leading all players with 25 points, along with 8 rebounds and 7 assists.
Jaylen Brown was quiet in this game, shooting 4/8 from the floor with no assists and two rebounds.
While the Celtics’ typical playstyle of chucking threes over and over will always leave me worried come crunch time in the playoffs, this game was more proof that this style does work and is here to stay.
Payton Pritchard led the team in three-point attempts with 13 off the bench. Tatum was second with 9, and White had 8. The team combined for a whopping 50 three-point attempts.
Do you think Sacremento shot that many? Not even half as much. They attempted just 24 threes.
Pritchard was the story of this game for me, as his 22 points with five rebounds is yet another stat line to add to his case for the NBA 6th Man of the Year.
In my opinion, Pritchard is clearly the best non-starter in the league and should easily win the 6th Man of the Year award.
With a roster as deep as the Celtics have, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they have some of the best role players in the league.
But Pritchard isn’t just a nice bench player. He would easily be a starter in most other franchises, and a really good one at that.
Luckily for the C’s, it seems that Pritchard is content to fill a lesser role for a stacked team rather than jump ship to a place where he’d be of more value.
With new ownership coming in and the uncertainty that comes with that, we can only hope that this Celtics core can stay together for as long as possible. Pritchard included.
