Payton Pritchard greeted his former coach Ime Udoka as the Celtics walked off the floor with a 32-point win on Saturday night at TD Garden. The reserve guard flourished in his role, scoring 19 points off the bench in his 23 minutes, including 7-of-10 shooting from the field. In his first full season as a member of Boston’s rotation since his rookie year and he’s making the most of it. He’s now scored in double digit points in three of Boston’s last four games and has bounced back in a hurry from a rough shooting start to the year.
While Boston’s stars are hitting new levels, the consistency of players like Pritchard down the bench is making life easy for Joe Mazzulla.
“I mean, just, you know, everybody kind of, I guess, knows their place on the team,” Pritchard said. “You are just comfortable with the situation and you’re just doing what you can to help the team win every other night. And that means a lot of, can mean a lot of different things so I guess that’s really it.”
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The performance Saturday was likely sweet against a former coach in Udoka whom Pritchard had to earn trust from. Despite a strong rookie year, Pritchard was buried for much of his sophomore season and only saw an opportunity after the team dealt away Dennis Schroder and Josh Richardson among others at the trade deadline.
Now, Pritchard has waited a longer time for a bigger role and is fitting us perfectly as a complement to Boston’s stars. However, he has no ill will towards his former coach.
“I’ve known them forever since I’ve been a little kid,” Pritchard said of Udoka and his coaching staff. “They’re from Portland where I’m from, so I’ve been around them since I’ve been a little one. I’ve been around the game with them, so, I will always have a close connection with them.”
As the trade deadline gets closer, Pritchard looks like a performer off the bench who not only doesn’t need to be upgraded but wouldn’t be worth moving for help elsewhere. The Celtics have plenty of continuity with this second unit and they’ve risen their games while watching Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum find different levels.
“It ups our standard if your best players are playing special on both ends, you gotta bring it on both ends as well,” Pritchard said. “We follow that lead and when they’re doing it, that’s when great things happen.”
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