BOSTON — Bucks coach Doc Rivers started hunching over in disbelief even before Payton Pritchard got his 3-point shot up to close out the third quarter. The reserve guard has become famous for his buzzer beaters over the last two seasons and he made Milwaukee his latest victim, hitting a 3 to closeout the third quarter in the Celtics’ 119-108 victory.
Pritchard finished with a season-high 30 points in the victory that left Rivers wondering afterwards why exactly his team wasn’t ready for his impact.
“It’s so funny, it’s not. But this morning, I literally circled his name and was like this guy comes in and he’s the game changer,” Rivers said. “I don’t know if you remember, last year, we had a six point lead and he came in and he changed the whole game. He did it again tonight. He got their 3-ball going because we kept him off the three line for the most part.
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“We loved how we were defending, channeling them inside. We just didn’t think they could make enough twos. But when you do that and you give up some layups, you cannot give up 3s. And I thought he started and then in the third, in the early fourth, they got loose with 3-point shots and that hurt us. I thought that changed the game.”
Pritchard’s 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter helped to jumpstart a 18-2 Celtics run that gave Boston the lead for good in the fourth quarter. Rivers explained his painful reaction to that shot at the end of the third period as he watched his Bucks defense let him get to his spot..
“We had to channel him to the middle and we talked about it this morning,” Rivers said. “End of the quarter, you always try to break off right. We went over that. And so it wasn’t that Pritchard reaction. It was more my reaction that this is something we covered and we were there and we let him go right. Right when he went right, I didn’t know it was going to go in. I just didn’t think good things were about to happen and they didn’t.”
Rivers and the Bucks fell to 1-3 on the season with the loss while the Celtics improved to 4-0. Pritchard has now scored in double figures for three straight games after Monday night and leads the NBA in 3-pointers made with 19.
