Doc Rivers hunched over on the sidelines to watch his team in a critical moment. His team had fought back and forth with the Celtics all quarter long, trading runs and leads. The Celtics were on an 8-1 run and had the ball with 6.5 seconds left in the third quarter.
Rivers stayed in his pose, moving only his head as Payton Pritchard caught the inbounds pass and darted up the court. He crossed over once, then twice, shaking his defender just enough to get some space. One final step back cleared his shooting hand to launch what has become a trademark for Pritchard.
“I just live for those moments,” Pritchard said after Boston’s win over Milwaukee, their fourth straight to open the season. “I kind of blackout in those moments and just let it fly.”
Rivers did the same, letting his head drop as the ball dropped through the net, giving Boston its biggest lead of the night to that point.
“We talked about it this morning … we went over that,” Rivers said. “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.”
From the perspective of about 19,000 other people in the building, what Pritchard did was a pretty good thing, actually.
“If there's six seconds left on the clock going into the end of the quarter, I immediately look for Payton,” Jrue Holiday said. “He just has a knack to score and he has so many different ways to do it. If it's in the paint, half-court shot. I mean, last game, it didn't count, but I think a three-quarter court shot, I mean, just the way that he puts the ball in the basket is amazing."
The Celtics needed everything Pritchard gave them against the Bucks. Boston’s bench outscored Milwaukee’s 30-19. Pritchard had 28 of those points.
“Payton is a killer and he’s always looking to put pressure on a defense,” Jaylen Brown said. “If you don’t put pressure on him and you don’t guard him, he’ll light you up.”
The issue with Pritchard is that he’s on the Celtics, and with so many other players to worry about, guarding him ends up being a little more difficult. Six of his eight made 3-pointers were assisted. Brown, Holiday, Jayson Tatum, and Derrick White all racked up assists thanks to Pritchard’s makes. All of those other guys demand attention, so Pritchard makes a living capitalizing on it.
“If we just play the right way, drive, kick, make the simple passes, the shots are gonna fall,” Pritchard said “So obviously I just try to play the right way, make the right reads regardless. And if my shot is there, I take them.”
Pritchard believes he is the most competitive person on the team, and frankly, I’m no going to argue. His brain gets his body to do things it probably shouldn’t, but it has no choice but to keep up.
“I hate losing in anything. I want to win at everything,” he said. “It doesn't matter if we’re playing wiffleball before practice, I want to win. So it's how I've always been, and it's probably why I'm here today.”
And so he takes shots when other people might not want to. He’s not going to let some silly percentage point get in the way of winning a game. He’ll gladly miss however many he has to in a row to hit the one that changes a game. Rivers’ reaction to his shot is all the proof he needs that it’s worth the risk.
“That’s why I feel like everybody’s got to take them, no matter the distance,” he said. “It’s a gut punch when you do hit them. The momentum — you felt the Garden. The momentum swings are crazy.”
The shots have made Pritchard a hero. There's something Boston loves about tiny guards hitting monster shots when they matter most, so in a way Pritchard is carrying on a sort of tradition. He’s not just helping his team win, he’s inspiring people along the way.
“I look like an ordinary person, and I feel like I give hope to everybody that is the same size as me,” Pritchard said. “I'm not necessarily the most athletic, but with hard work, you can make it a long way, and I feel like I'm the prime example of that. I never quit, and I keep going. Anything that you put your mind to in life, you can accomplish it. So I'm proud to give hope to those people."
You can see it in the crowd as people hold up signs directed at him. You can see it around town, too, as his wife showed us in a now viral video. The Pritchards, walking their dog around the Seaport, settled on a dog park for a little while. But the park also had a basketball hoop nearby, which is simply a siren call for Payton.
Payton Pritchard’s wife Emma just posted this on IG and it’s awesome pic.twitter.com/7exhh4c8oR
— Cameron Tabatabaie (@CTabatabaie) October 27, 2024
“We were just messing around really, just playing 1-on-1 with them,” Pritchard said. “They were actually pretty good, though. Little scrappy kids getting after it. So I definitely appreciated it, and I was talking a little bit. I don't know. I like moments like that. Just felt like a kid again, playing outside.”
But even in that moment, Pritchard couldn't leave it there. He painted such a nice picture; a Celtics champion and some kid at the park living a dream playing against an NBA player. It was such a pure, wholesome image, but even then, he couldn't resist letting his competitive side take over.
“I got a bucket on them, though, so..."
And that's why he makes all those shots.