BOSTON — Payton Pritchard was living life alright during the preseason. He was set to get some more playing time, and his impressive preseason play only further solidified his spot in coach Joe Mazzulla’s rotation. His four-year extension with the Celtics also didn’t hurt as he secured his long-term future.
But once the regular season started, Pritchard hit a shooting slump. Mazzulla said the fourth-year guard contributed in other ways, but reality was that he started just 3-for-20 from 3-point land. Pritchard said he stayed off social media and figured “people are coming at me.”
Pritchard broke through in the Celtics’ 121-107 win over the Nets on Friday. He hit a couple 3-pointers, but it was his winning play elsewhere that also boosted the C’s to victory. Pritchard played a season-high 30 minutes, putting up 13 points and five rebounds with four boards on the offensive end.
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So he had just one message for the detractors:
“Keep hating,” Pritchard said. “This is just making me better. This is part of the journey. These slumps, I think end of the day will pay dividends and will make me a better player overall. Like I’m not hitting shots, so these last couple of games, I had to find other ways to impact it. So it’s making me an all-around player and not just a shooter.”
Pritchard said it’s far from the first time he’s hit a slump, and that’s natural for any shooter. But the 25-year-old admitted the misses affected him mentally at times as he second-guessed open shots.
Despite the struggles, Pritchard said his teammates encouraged him to keep shooting. While the misses piled up, so, too, can the makes for a shooter like Pritchard. It helped that he kept making the hustle plays amid his slump, whether it was getting an offensive board or picking up full-court on defense.
“It’s like a bounce-back,” Pritchard said. “Obviously, I knew I wasn’t shooting well and I was disappointed in myself. I might be my toughest critic before anybody else. So obviously I wanted to play great and I wanted to bounce back and I want to continue it.”
While it’s still early in the season, the Celtics will need Pritchard to continue stepping up in a reserve role. The C’s haven’t had many games where they’re shorthanded, but those are bound to come over the course of an 82-game regular season. That’s when they’ll need to rely on Pritchard coming off the bench — it’s also why they rewarded him with the extension.
Friday’s performance was a positive step to shake off the early play. Mazzulla has stuck with Pritchard through the misses as he looks to empower his guard to continue playing his game. Pritchard said that was communicated to him that he’ll continue getting opportunities, so he didn’t have to worry about making mistakes while on the court.
“He’s been making a big impact the whole year,” Mazzulla said. “To me, he changed the game for us tonight. … And what we see is like, it’s easy to look at the scoring of the bench and be like we’re not producing, but there’s so much other stuff that those guys do for us on a daily basis.”
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