BOSTON — Payton Pritchard played just one minute in the Celtics title-clinching 106-88 win over the Mavericks on Monday night, but he continued to add to his legend. Joe Mazzulla tightened his rotation with the return of Kristaps Porzingis to the lineup, leaving Pritchard on the sidelines for all but the final four seconds of the first half of Game 5.
However, just a week after hitting a clutch heave in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Pritchard was at it again, hitting a half-court shot to push Boston’s lead to 21 points at halftime. According to Stathead, Pritchard became the first player ever to have two 30-foot buzzer-beater makes in NBA history, adding to his lure after hitting plenty during the regular season and one during the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
After the win, Pritchard earned all sorts of praise from his teammates for his historic make.
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Jaylen Brown: “We had an excellent game plan in the Finals, and then all of the guys contributed. Like, for example, like Payton Pritchard, like unreal, right. Unreal. Like just comes in the game and drains one from halfcourt. That dude, he’s a (expletive) legend, man. Shout out to Payton Pritchard.”
Joe Mazzulla: “Payton is one of the best competitors and one of my favorite people in the world. Just the way he competes, the professionalism and just for his ability to take pride in stuff like that. He’s really grown as a player this year to becoming a well-rounded player on both ends of the floor, and he won us games.
“I think he won us moments. You know, as the playoffs go on, obviously some patterns change and things change, but those guys have to win moments of games for you, and Payton did that twice for us. That is just as important as any other plays that happened throughout the series and in the playoffs alone. You know, I’ve got a huge heart for him.”
Al Horford: “Man, that was beautiful. That was beautiful. He did that, and you take a glance at the other team, and it’s one of those that breaks your spirit, and then it just kind of fueled us.
But Payton, man, that just sums it up. It was ups and downs for him, not knowing what to expect, when to play, when not to play. He’s the kind of guy that he is a big-time player, and it’s hard because we have a lot of guys.
“But man, him stepping up, cold, ready, not afraid of the moment, taking the shot; and man, as soon as he shot it, like I don’t know how you guys saw it, but I was like, man, he’s about to knock it down. Like this is crazy. So, man, the fact that he knocked it down, like that was huge. That was special.”
