NEW YORK – Payton Pritchard is a competitor.
He’s always been that way. He relishes the opportunity to compete on the biggest of stages when the lights are the brightest. So when the Celtics found themselves with their backs against the wall, down 0-2 in hostile territory, of course, he embraced the moment.
“You wouldn’t want to be in any other position as a competitor. This is the best moment you can be in, down 2-0, backs against the wall,” he said. “You just bring it.”
With the stakes at their highest, Pritchard, who prides himself on his preparation and work ethic, delivered. He led the team in scoring with a postseason career-high 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 from three. His five triples matched a playoff best and equaled the Knicks’ total as a team. He also single-handedly outscored New York’s bench, 23-21.
Defensively, the 2024-25 Sixth Man of the Year played a key role in the effort that held Jalen Brunson to a very inefficient 27 points on 9-of-21 (42.9%) shooting.
“Payton was huge,” Jaylen Brown said after the game. “Payton was great. New York – they’re physical. They got some big guards. Wings that like to load up on the ball. The level of physicality is higher. So you’ve got to be able to make those passes, make those shots, and make those plays. Payton did a great job of that tonight.”
Pritchard became just the ninth player in franchise history to score at least 23 points off the bench in a playoff game, joining a list that includes Kevin McHale, Eddie House, Kelly Olynyk, Scott Wedman, Tiny Archibald, M.L. Carr, John Havlicek, and Malcolm Brogdon. His five threes were also the second-most off the bench in Celtics playoff history, trailing only Brogdon’s six in Game 4 of the 2023 Eastern Conference semifinals against the Sixers. Pritchard did so in a postseason career-high 34 minutes.
After the game, head coach Joe Mazzulla said the extended minutes were a result of Jrue Holiday getting into foul trouble.
“Our sub-patterns are always flexible,” Mazzulla said. ”Tonight, Jrue had three fouls, and Payton was good. At times, you go with what makes the most sense. Just the flexibility of what we were able to do, but he played really well on both ends of the floor for us. There was some foul trouble there, so we were able to go to some different stuff.”
The second part — “Payton was good” — likely had more to do with the extended minutes than the foul trouble. Holiday only committed three fouls, one in each of the first three quarters. Pritchard also had three, following the same pattern of one in each of the first three quarters.
Maybe it was the foul trouble. After all, Derrick White finished with four. Or perhaps Holiday’s hamstring, which caused him to miss the final three games of Boston’s first-round series against Orlando, resulted in him registering just 25 minutes, his fewest in a playoff game since 2015.
Or maybe it was as simple as Pritchard just gave the game what it needed, something Mazzulla emphasizes the importance of frequently.
From the jump, he helped suck the life out of MSG. He dropped seven points in the opening quarter—more than any Knick—punctuated by an 11-foot baseline jumper over two New York defenders as the first quarter horn sounded, pushing the lead to 16. It never dipped below that the rest of the night, and Pritchard kept delivering, shot after shot, for an offense that badly needed a strong shooting performance.
“Just got to maintain my aggressiveness any chance I get. Attack the paint, but always be hunting the three-ball, obviously,” Pritchard said on his offensive performance. “I thought I did a good job of getting in the paint and making a play, but for me, it’s just about energy. Coming in, I got to get a rebound, get an assist, get a stop, hit a big shot, got to be ready for everything.”
Games like Game 3 are what Pritchard lives for. Under pressure, with their season on the line, in the self-proclaimed “World’s Most Famous Arena.” The highest of competitive environments.
This is exactly the kind of moment he’s yearned for since arriving in Boston. And when he got his extended opportunity, he made the most of it, helping keep the Celtics’ season alive in what very well could be the turning point of this series.
Now, he has to be ready to do it again.
“It’s onto game four,” he said. “We’ve got to have the same mindset coming in and try and make it two-two and bring it back home.”
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