Celtics getting Payton Pritchard realization that unlocked new dimension

BOSTON — When Neemias Queta got ready to set a flare screen for Payton Pritchard, the Boston Celtics guard was already scouring the Toronto Raptors’ defense for openings. Jakob Poeltl, who commonly plays in drop coverage, stepped up to the three-point line. Derrick White passed the ball to Queta, who handed it to Pritchard, and by that point, his decision had already been made.

In a flash, Pritchard took a huge dribble, split Poeltl and Brandon Ingram, and found a massive opening in the middle of the floor. “It’s just read-based,” Pritchard told Hardwood Houdini. He drained the paint shot that came out of the play, but it came down to way more than a single read.

As soon as Queta handed the ball off, Pritchard didn’t immediately look for the mid-range. “The first read is, right after Neemi passes, is see if I can shoot the three,” he said.

The three wasn’t open. Poeltl wasn’t in drop. So, Pritchard found the next read. “They both close out, I split them, and then I just get to a little paint shot,” he said.

Payton Pritchard's growth comes from understanding the game

Every play of every game comes down to a bunch of little decisions. It’s more than memorizing a single play, coverage, or tendency.

“It's not a memorization. It's a muscle memory of awareness and understanding, but it's not a memorization, because it could change so much,” Joe Mazzulla said at practice on Thursday. “I mean, there are plays that we have to memorize, but within the plays, you have to know all the different variables that go into that. 

“You may run the same play five times, they may guard three different ways of those five times, so you have to run the same play differently to get what you want out of that, and that's what you're learning.”

For Pritchard, that means growing relationships and trusting his instincts. Playing alongside Neemias Queta and Boston’s new big-man rotation, those have been essential building blocks.

On one pick-and-roll, Wendell Carter Jr. dropped back into the restricted area. That allowed Pritchard to take advantage of his positioning. “Knowing that he’s in the restricted area, I can go up and finish that and maybe draw contact, get the foul, because he’s out of position there,” he said.

On another, Andre Drummond’s unwillingness to commit forced Pritchard to flow off Queta’s roll timing. He kept Justin Edwards on his back, waited for Drummond to make a move, and found Queta at the last moment. “It’s just making a two-on-one read,” he said.

On another, he saw the New York Knicks had two guards defending in the pick-and-roll and recognized that as a matchup Queta could pick on. “This is kind of an easy read,” Pritchard said. “I get there, two guards, Neemi gets behind. When Neemi gets behind, it’s easy. Throw it up by the rim.”

Those split-second decisions have gotten easier as the year has gone on.

“It's getting better,” Queta said of his pick-and-roll game with Pritchard. “Like everything we do, it's different when you get to run every day. You get to get more repetitions with it. And I'm figuring out his game more and figuring out how to get him open more. What he likes, what he doesn't like. And he's getting to know how I get out of screens, too. It's a work in progress, and we're getting better.”

As far as his individual scoring goes, Pritchard lives in his subconscious.

“I don't even think when I'm doing a move, it just happens so naturally,” he said.

Whether it’s knowing to get a lanky center like Alex Sarr off-balance or keeping a point-of-attack defender on his back to maintain positioning, Pritchard’s natural understanding of the game often takes center stage.

Thoughts are replaced by action.

Yet simultaneously, the same intuition that allows him to act without second-guessing himself is what drives his ability to read and react to various situations on the court. Not memorization—comprehensive adaptability.

Boston runs a variation of Horns this year in which two bigs (commonly Luka Garza and Josh Minott) set double screens well above the top of the arc. It gives the ball-handlers two different paths to drive, but that requires reading the defense.

One screener pops, the other rolls, and once the ball-handler begins the play, it’s their job to find the right read. Against the LA Clippers, that read was the pop-out pass to Minott. “It’s kind of just reading what’s going to give us the best advantage,” Pritchard said. Minott drove, found Garza in the dunker spot, and Boston got an open layup.

Against the Brooklyn Nets, with Anfernee Simons running the play, Garza’s early roll got him behind Michael Porter Jr., and he was able to swing the ball to a wide-open Pritchard in the corner. Even when the shot didn’t fall, Garza was still under the rim for a put-back layup.

Pritchard’s growth as a conductor has been a driving force of Boston’s fourth-ranked offense this season.

“Continuing to work on his two-on-one reads that are coming in different places, with him handling more and seeing different coverages,” Mazzulla said of Pritchard’s biggest areas of growth. “Seeing switching more and small-small, seeing a little bit of up to touch and a blitz. So, it's continuing to work those two-on-one reads.”

Defensively, Pritchard can blow up screens and force defenses into playing his game. Offensively, his step-back work, two-on-one reads, and body control have given the Celtics an elite creator to deploy alongside Jaylen Brown.

But everything he does on the court is because of the work he puts in behind the scenes. Every read, pass, and shot he makes derives from film study, repetitions, and practice.

That’s why Pritchard is where he is today.