There's a pretty good chance Payton Pritchard can walk down the street in a lot of cities and blend right into the crowd. Nothing really stands out about him when he’s not in an NBA uniform. Hell, he could probably go to the Clark Kent School of Disguise and be able to walk around Boston for a long time without being noticed.
But on the court, he just keeps finding ways to not only contribute, but own large portions of Celtics games.
“The key to him is he finds different ways to impact games,” Joe Mazzulla said. “I know it sounds weird, but he's one of the best three-level scores that I've seen, especially for his size, and he's just a high-level competitor.”
Pritchard’s 19 fourth-quarter points saved the Celtics on Friday night. And while some might chalk it up to him just getting hot, there's definitely more to the story. Let’s dive into his fourth quarter to fully appreciate what Pritchard is able to do.
At this point, Pritchard had already hit a 3-pointer. It was a nice catch-and-shoot off an assist from Jaylen Brown. A minute later, with Boston down one, Pritchard looked to be ready to return the favor by screening for Brown to get the switch onto Josh Giddey. Boston had been targeting him all night, and with Jayson Tatum out of the game, it looked like they were going to turn to Brown to handle the attacking for a bit.
Pritchard understood that Chicago was going to switch the screen and that Giddey was preparing himself to be attacked by Brown. Whether it was by design or a read, Pritchard used Giddey's mentality against him by ghosting the screen. Brown's man didn't switch because he didn't feel a screen, but Giddey did because he assumed the screen would be set. That sprung Pritchard for the clean look.
Pritchard hit five 3-pointers, and we'll get to a good one in a second, but he also got to the rim twice as part of his barrage.
A guy Pritchard's size has no business being as effective as he is at the rim, but he has the tricks in his bag to give himself advantages.
You can see here why they attacked Giddey as much as they did. He's not going to stay in front of a lot of people and Pritchard was no exception. But there's help along the way and Pritchard had to account for that. Here, he faked an alley oop pass to Neemias Queta about halfway down the lane. Watch him fake the pass AND toss a head fake to get Jalen Smith to bite and essentially get out of his way. Giddey had no chance and no help because of that fake.
Also, just as an aside, that probably could have been a switch with Smith stepping up to stop the drive and Giddey peeling off to protect against the lob. But the Bulls defense is god awful and they aren't even really thinking about that step here.
You might recognize the trick used on this drive on Nikola Vucevic.
Classic small guy move on the big man.
"I just think he's really good at reading angles," Mazzulla said. "He was able to attack his outside hip, and then he was able to cut him off around the free throw line and use an angle to where he uses the rim as extra protection over their centers."
Attacking the outside hip forced Vucevic to turn and run rather than slide his feet. By getting him under the rim, Pritchard prevented Vucevic from fully jumping and challenging because the rim was in his way. But the real trick is how he got Vucevic under the rim.
We used to watch Isaiah Thomas and Kemba Walker do this stuff all the time. Just as they got to the rim, Pritchard turned into Vucevic, got low, and bumped him. That uses the big's momentum against him, pushing him further than he wanted to go. And because he's a big, it's harder for him to change directions as quickly as the small, shifty guard can.
"Obviously, at my size, a lot of people aren't going to help when I'm down low with a big," Pritchard said. "I use that to my advantage, knowing that I just need to create just a little bit of space, so a little bump to sneak a finish ... it's just really keeping people off balance ... Obviously, I'm not going to go and jump over a seven-footer or a big man, so I got to use craftiness."
But ultimately, it's the 3-point shooting that makes the biggest difference for Pritchard, and his essentially unlimited range is what makes him most dangerous.
The Bulls were switching, and this looked like a great chance to go at Vucevic again and try to punish him. But Sam Hauser was being guarded by Zach LaVine. That's also a tasty matchup for anyone to attack. So Hauser set the screen and Vucevic got out of the way. Pritchard read that LaVine was sagging way off so he just pulled up, in-rhythm, from the logo.
Vucevic knew Pritchard was a threat from there, which is why he was up so high. But being up that high allows Pritchard to attack and get downhill. It's what makes him that dangerous three-level scorer Mazzulla talked about.
Pritchard is not only tenacious, he's a very smart player. But more importantly, he is aware of who he is and the team he's on. He has the confidence in himself to take over for these stretches and his teammates have the confidence to let him cook. He know how and when to attack and when to do other things to help the team, like crash the boards for offensive rebounds. He led the team with four in this game.
There are better players on the team, but no one is more competitive or driven than Pritchard. The Celtics are now 16-3 and just a half-game out of first place. A win on Sunday in Cleveland will put Boston back on top of the conference. Whenever Pritchard is in the game, you can bet he'll be trying to make any play he can to help the Celtics win.
"Me and P, same high school class, so I've been seeing that fearless, competitive nature ever since we was, like, 13," Tatum said. "It's been pretty cool to see him grow into the player that he is, being effective on a championship team, and the things that he's doing is Sixth Man of the Year-worthy to me."
