Earlier than the fourth quarter of the Pistons recreation, it appeared like Payton Pritchard is perhaps coming again to earth. Then Pritchard poured in 12 factors and three rebounds within the remaining body. And Joe Mazzulla appreciated each minute of it.
“I assumed he made big-time performs whether or not it was the offensive rebound, whether or not it was the play on the finish of the sport, or simply pushing the place. You realize, he kinda simply has the power to impression the sport in numerous methods.”
A traditional misnomer is that Mazzulla Ball is just making an attempt to shoot as many three-point pictures as doable. Offensively, Mazzulla Ball is about creating the absolute best shot. It simply so occurs the Celtics have perhaps essentially the most taking pictures expertise ever assembled on an NBA roster. You combine the taking pictures expertise with a bunch of nice shot-creators, and you find yourself with the very best three-point fee in NBA historical past.
The piece of Mazzulla Ball that generally will get missed is about dominating on the margins. Mazzulla’s Celtics are going to kill you from the three-point. There’s nothing that may be performed about that. However they’re additionally not going to show it over, rebound the ball, and this yr, get to the free-throw line. So even when the three-point pictures don’t fall, the Celtics have seemingly crushed you in sufficient of the margins to win anyway, as evidenced by their 5-0 document in video games the place they shoot beneath 34% from three. Good luck beating that crew 4 out of seven occasions within the playoffs.
This is the reason it is sensible for Mazzulla to gush about Pritchard’s skill to impression the sport exterior his taking pictures. Particularly his offensive rebounding.
“You noticed it offensive rebounding. You noticed it shot-making. He can simply impression the sport in so some ways.”
Three-point taking pictures can come and go; even Steph Curry can have a chilly night time or week or month from three-point vary. Nice gamers nonetheless impression the sport on these nights. Pritchard, regardless of being 6”1, in what I’m guessing are very tall sneakers, rebounds the heck out of the ball whereas sustaining an elite assist-turnover ratio. Pritchard is an elite offensive rebounder for his dimension and place. Over the previous 25 years, out of all gamers six-foot-two and below, Pritchard is sixth in offensive rebounding proportion behind solely Rajon Rondo, Sundiata Gaines, Bobby Jackson, Patrick Beverly, and Gary Payton II.
Gathering clutch offensive rebounds just isn’t a brand new phenomenon for Payton Pritchard. Pritchard has been doing this since he joined the Boston Celtics in 2020.
That is what he does.
If you mix Pritchard’s impression on the margins along with his explosive scoring skill, the Celtics are left with one of the vital impactful bench gamers within the NBA.
