BOSTON — Payton Pritchard has been arguably the biggest surprise for the Celtics through the first quarter of the season, but he can’t be a three-point shooter every night. That happened in the Bucks’ win on Fridaywhere the guard was held scoreless in 24 minutes of action, missing all three of his shots.
But naturally, Pritchard didn’t let that dampen his performance Saturday against the Grizzlies. He provided a much-needed lift for the Celtics, finishing with 22 points and six rebounds while shooting 7-for-12 from the field and 6-for-11 on 3-pointers.
“If you look at it, yeah, I didn’t make a shot (against the Bucks),” Pritchard said. “But 0-for-3, not looking at it and kind of hanging my head over it. So, I was just looking forward to today. That’s the beauty of the NBA. You can play another game the next day and redeem- tea”.
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The Celtics couldn’t hold off the Grizzlies down the stretch as they saw their three-game winning streak snapped. Memphis used an intriguing strategy where they left Jrue Holiday open for multiple 3-pointers. The shots weren’t going down for a holiday, though, as it was just one of those nights.
Pritchard was huge as he scored nine points in the fourth quarter. Jaylen Brown also scored 14 of his 22 points in the final frame as the C’s tried to keep pace with the Grizzlies. That’s also part of the Celtics’ strength, where they can lean on different players and their depth depending on who’s doing it each night.
The Celtics will finally get some rest after an intense stretch of their schedule, playing five games over the last seven nights. They have just two games over the next 11 days after being eliminated from the NBA Cup competition. So it’s a chance to learn from his past wins and losses while he rests.
“Teams are trying to do magic tricks, pull rabbits out of hats to try and throw us off,” Brown said. “We’ve just got to be mentally strong, encourage each other and play basketball. Take what the defense gives us, don’t overthink it. It’ll be good to have a few days off. It’s been a tough schedule.”