Nothing went right for the Celtics down the stretch in Game 5 against the Sixers, a demoralizing 113-97 loss to the 76ers that saw Boston get outscored 28-11 in the fourth quarter. There are countless issues to point to, but one point of fascination and frustration was the lack of playing time for Payton Pritchard.
On a night when the team’s offense was coming apart at the seams, their third-best offensive player, who was coming fresh off a 32-point masterpiece, played just 26 minutes and didn’t enter the game in the final frame until there were under five minutes left, and it was already too late.
It was a head-scratching decision, as the Celtics were struggling to move the ball, move without the ball, penetrate the lane, and hit shots; all things that Pritchard is quite good at. And it’s not like he was playing poorly or did anything to be out of the lineup.
Despite shooting just 1-5 from three, Payton was the team’s third-leading scorer with 12 points and the leader in assists with 6. He shot 5-10 from the field and was getting to the basket at will. To top it off, the Cs were +8 in his minutes, a complete outlier from the rest of the rotation on a night when Boston lost by 16.
Pritchard should be treated more like a star than a role player
For him to get this little run is baffling and inexcusable. The days of Payton being a sixth-man microwave scorer are long over, and while he may still technically come off the bench, it may be time for that to change. He’s a leading engine of this offense, and they need consistent production out of him in order to be an elite offense.
It’s clearer than ever that with Derrick White struggling, Joe Mazzulla and the coaching staff need to understand that Pritchard is a huge part of this core and treat him accordingly. He can still come off the bench, but he needs to be playing 35+ minutes on a nightly basis, especially when the team is dying for offense like they were in Game 5.
Pritchard has always been behind a pair of elite guards in Boston, from Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart, then Smart and White, then White and Holiday, but now Pritchard is the number two guard, and arguably the number one when it comes to offense. He hasn’t been great in this series, but he has still been the third-best player, and it’s not a coincidence that the two games he has played the fewest minutes in this series are the two Celtics losses.
There’s still time for this to change, but it has to happen now. Pritchard needs to be treated like a complementary star, not a role player, and outside of Tatum and Brown, he needs to be seeing as much opportunity as anyone moving forward.
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