Boston Celtics player No. 2) Payton Pritchard
A big reason why the Boston Celtics fell to the Warriors in Game 4–other than the fact that Stephen Curry went absolutely nuclear–was due to their inability to hit shots down the stretch.
Over the game-altering final five minutes of regulation, the C’s converted on just 1-of-8 of their attempts from the field and 1-of-7 from deep whilst being outscored 17-3 along the way.
Now entering Game 5, one can only assume that Ime Udoka is going to be prioritizing his offensive playmakers and shot creators to make up for this late-game lap from Friday night and, as a result, we feel that Payton Pritchard could wind up benefiting from this if he does.
Throughout this year’s postseason, we’ve seen the sophomore guard dip into his bag of tricks often and quite efficiently, be it by creating space off the dribble or knocking down pull-up jumpers from beyond the arc.
Due to his limited playing time through these first four games of play, it has been hard for him to truly show out but, prior to the start of this series, when receiving significant run (15 or more minutes) we saw Pritchard posting a sound stat-line of 12 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists on 52 percent shooting from the floor and 43 percent shooting from deep.
His well-documented abilities in the scoring department, coupled with his rather underrated defensive play (though not stellar, he’s wildly underappreciated when it comes to his strength in backdown situations and has quick hands to swipe away unsuspecting handlers and screw up passing lanes) and energizer bunny motor make him a strong candidate to receive more playing time in this pivotal matchup, especially if they find themselves looking for some sort of spark.