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Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Payton Pritchard EXPLODES Off the Bench to Rescue Boston Celtics in Win Over Atlanta
00:26:23
Boston Celtics survive a gritty showdown with the Atlanta Hawks as Payton Pritchard explodes for 36 points off the bench. Can the Celtics maintain their momentum as Jaylen Brown recovers from Achilles tendinitis and Jason Tatum battles back from a rough shooting night? John Karalis of Celtics On SI breaks down how Boston’s bench powered the win, spotlighting key performances from Pritchard, Luka Garza, and Jordan Walsh. Discussions center on offensive rebounding, Derrick White’s uncharacteristic struggles, and Tatum’s big fourth quarter. Insights include Joe Mazzulla’s rotation adjustments, Jordan Walsh's defensive impact, and Neemias Queta's growth as a passing big. With playoff minutes looming, the Celtics' depth and resilience are tested—will this bench keep delivering as the stakes rise?
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No Jaylen Brown that's okay. Pton Pritchard steps up to save the Celtics against the Atlanta Hawks Locked on Celtics P Home of the winners hey, welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast. I'm John Corralis and today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. It's tournament time and during the tournament FanDuel is offering 300 back in bonus bets every day for 10 days. Head to FanDuel.com to get started. The Celtics get the win 109, 102 over the Atlanta Hawks. Later on we'll get to Jordan Walsh, who had a surprising night, Jason Tatum's night, which was good and bad. Offensive rebounds, all of that stuff. The bench. I'm going to start with Peyton Pritchard. I'm going to also let me start by apologizing. I'm a little under the weather so this will be a shorter show. I'm you might be able to hear it in my voice, but Peyton Pritchard was huge for the Celtics. Jalen Brown out. If you missed my short, there's a short on the YouTube feed where I explain Jason. I mean, Jalen has a left Achilles tendonitis. Short version is it's just tendonitis. It's not a strain. A strain involves a little bit of tearing in the tendon. The tendinitis is inflammation, it's irritation. It's not necessarily a tear. So that's a very important distinction to me anyway. And so it should be like Just rest, whatever. But I don't think that's a big deal. I know everybody hears Achilles, and rightfully so. People worry. I don't think right now, I don't think it's a big deal. I think he just might need a little bit of time off, and he should be fine. Peyton Pritchard. Every time Jalen is out, Peyton seems to have a monster game, and he did in this one. 36 points off the bench, 13 of 23, 6 of 11 from three, but impressively, three offensive rebounds as part of a seven rebound night to go along with four assists. He did have some. He did have five turnovers. But Pritchard was, you know, huge. When he's hitting shots, then the whole dynamic of the game always changes, like you give it to him. And he scored seven points in less than a minute and a half. At the end of the first quarter where the Celtics were struggling at, you know, another first quarter where the Celtics kind of couldn't get it going, and they fell behind by, I want to say, 10 or 11. And it was Pritchard who helped save them in a big way. He had seven points in that quarter, all in those last minute, I want to say minute 23, I think, is the actual number. And the Celtics were struggling shooting in that. In that first quarter. And then he comes in and changes that. And then in the second quarter, he drops 12 points. In the third quarter, he drops 13. And just hitting from outside, hitting from inside. Really impressive, because scoring against the big athletic wings that the Hawks have, it's not easy. It's tough. But he finds a way. And those offensive rebounds get in. There was one late on a Tatum drive where he just was in the right spot. Goes up, gets the. And one for Pritchard, the smallest guy on the floor most nights to get in there. He always has a knack. He has a real knack for offensive rebounding. He sneaks in. Maybe it's because he's so small that he's not tiny. He's not like five, six. He's like six, two. So he still finds a way, maybe they don't think, to box him out, but by now teams should know, box out Peyton Pritchard, because he's going to get in there and find a way to get a rebound. The Celtics offensive rebounding was a big part of this. The bench was really good. The bench points, I think they were obviously the difference in this game, 55 bench points. So the Celtics scored 109, 55 of those were off the bench. You don't normally get that big of a split between the two. It's 55 bench points, 54 starter points. You don't get a 50, 50 split like that very often. They won the. The bench points 55 to 18, which, again, you don't see that very often from the Celtics. Pritchard, obviously moving to the bench helps that a bit. And that on a night where guys like Derek White struggled, you know, D. White, 3 of 13, oh 4 from 3. This is a rare kind of rough game for him. He had five fouls. He. He had honestly the most telling number for Derrick White. 0 steals, 0 blocks, 5 fouls. Those three statistics tell you everything. You know, I don't have to tell you what he shot. If I just told you Derrick White had five fouls, zero steals, zero blocks, he'd be like, whoa, rough night for him. And yeah, he. He got to the line, and that helped him get to 10 points. But tough night for D. White. Baylor shireman only had three points. Kada only had five. Sam Houser had 10. I'll get to Tatum later because he had 26, but it was not an easy 26. 26 points on 24 shots. But with the starters not being able to contribute in the same way they normally do, and with Jaylen Brown out to get this from the bench, you get 11 points from Luca Garza, who only played 15 minutes, but really hustled in those 15 minutes. You get the 36, I mean, from. From Pritchard, and then you just tack on Jordan. Walsh hits a couple of shots, Ugo hits a three. That's. That's where the bench kind of steps in and. And does its job. But more so, it's the offensive rebounding. Three for Pritchard, two for Garza, two for Walsh, two for D. White, three for Shireman. The fourth quarter especially, it just felt like every time the Celtics really needed to extend a possession, they. They got in on the offensive rebounding. And the offensive rebounding was not only just huge as it is in general. You make the defense work. It counterbalanced. The. The real tough turnover night for the Celtics. The Celtics had 16 turnovers for 20 Hawks points. That right there is a recipe for disaster. They got. And they got straight ripped on some of these possessions. They got just the ball taken out of Pritchard's hands, the ball taken out of Tatum's hands. The. The Hawks did a great job of getting these steals. They had six steals overall. 20 points off turnovers is. Is a rough one in a game that you win by seven. If, if the Celtics had a normal night, then they could have, they could have pulled away. But you needed those offensive rebounds they got. They had 18 second chance points and even that, they were three of nine on second chance point opportunities. So if they had gotten like two, three more baskets out of that, they could have kind of won this more comfortably. So if they had hit some of these second chance shots and if they had just controlled their turnovers a little bit, this could have been a much easier win for the Celtics. But getting in there, crashing the glass, plus nine offensive rebounding, second chance points, I should say in a game you win by seven, that's huge. So the reasons why they won this game, Peyton Pritchard stepping in and going just bonkers for 36 points, the bench in general stepping up and the offensive rebounds, that was enough to get them past a very tough Hawks team. Jason Tatum had a big fourth quarter, but not in the normal way. His game was good and bad. We'll get to him. We'll get to Jordan Walsh and wrap up the show in two segments. We'll do all of that when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by Prize Picks. The playoff push is heating up and tournament hoops are here. And there's no better way to get in on the action than Prize Picks, where it always feels good to be right. Every bucket, every dime, every big moment means more when you're playing on Prize Picks. It's the number one daily fantasy sports app and it's incredibly simple to play. 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That means 10 chances to stay involved throughout the entire tournament. You can mix it up however you want, game picks, futures, even same game parlays for bigger potential payouts. It's perfect for the tourney because every day there's something new. Different matchups, different storylines, and more ways to get involved as the bracket unfolds. So visit FanDuel.com to sign up today. When you sign up they will ask you to set a limit. Set your budget. Do so so you can gamble responsibly. Only bet where you can afford to lose. Gamble responsibly@fanduel.com get in on the action. Thank you for making Locked on Celtics your first listen Every day it's the number one Celtics podcast on the number one sports podcasting network. I'm John Corrales. I cover the Celtics for Celtics on si. Go read my written work there. I've been covering the Celtics for about 20 years now. I've been doing this podcast for 10. So thank you so much for joining me. On a Monday through Friday basis I got bonus podcasts during the week. Sometimes this is a bonus podcast on a Friday night. When they play on a Friday or Saturday I will do a post game podcast. Again, apologies for me being under the weather. A little bit of a shorter show today. Excuse me. Right on cue. I didn't plan that. That's not me trying to do that like calling in sick at work and you just do the little cough into the phone like, I can't make it. That's legit. But thank you for bearing with me as I go through the Celtics win. 109, 102. Jason Tatum. This. I agree with Brian Scalabrine who said during the broadcast this is exactly what Tatum needed. I think this is a good. You need this kind of push if you're Jason. So the raw numbers, 26 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists. I want to start with this. You have to be really, really good for anybody to talk about you in terms of, oh, you know, not, not, not the best game, rough game for him. And the final numbers to be 26 points, 12 rebounds, five assists. Like, oh, my God, I hope I have a career as bad as 26 points, 12 rebounds, five assists. That's incredible. But undoubtedly he looked back after the game. He said, I know I look rusty, but I promise you I'm trying as hard as I can out there. He's. He's frustrated for sure. Some of the shots, you know, he shot 8 of 24. That's. That's bad. He had a bad shooting. They had a. I think he was over 7. Was in the first quarter. No, in the second quarter he was 0 for 7. Yeah, an 0 for 2 from 3. But listen, he still goes out there and he rebounds. So he, he got the 12 rebounds. He leads the Celtics in rebounds, five assists, which is tied for team high. That's good. Only two turnovers. Even though he was a little shaky with the ball, so still doing other things. But in the fourth quarter, he found a way to get to 13 points and put the game away mostly at the free throw line. 6 of 7 from the line in the fourth quarter and, and that's that. You got to find a way. And Tatum found a way in the fourth quarter. The Celtics were, you know, kind of still, they're still figuring it out with Tatum. You throw some, some small ball lineups out there with him at the five, and it works to some degree against especially a team like Atlanta, a team like okc, a team that's going to throw their own small ball lineups out there. It's good to put Tatum out there in those situations. He needs to grow and find his, find his footing as the big in a five, a small ball kind of lineup. He's a big dude, right? You know, he's out there playing against actual guys like Aneka Kongu and he's, he's looking a Congo like, eye to Eye there. Tatum's not a small guy. He's a big dude. He plays, he's on the wing. But, you know, if Tatum wants to extend his career into, you know, being, you know, a 40 year old on the floor, which is still a long way away, but if he wants to kind of morph into a 5 at some point in his career, he can do that. That's, that's an advantage that he has, that at some point he can be a. If he wants to play until he's 44, he can do so as a backup big, that hits fadeaway jumpers, you know what I mean? Like, that, that's an option for him if he wants it. So if he wants to end up trying to play with Deuce at some point in his life, he can do that into his 40s, you know, and, and do what LeBron is doing. But, you know, the. He. Anyway, I'm not, I'm not gonna go too far on that, but because he's still 28 and trying to get back to who he, who he was, and he's still not close to that. But the battles against the Hawks, the, you know, going up against Jalen Johnson and Nikhil Alexander Walker and Jonathan Kaminga and these guys, all these guys that just take turns hugging them and grabbing at him and all of that stuff, that's. First of all, that's playoff basketball. Second of all, that's, you know, you. You need to be pushed, just like he needed to be pushed to get back at 10 months post surgery. You need a push now. This is all part of it. So I don't think Tatum is going to take, you know, forever to get back to being who he is. But if he's going to get back to Jason Tatum, he needs to be. He needs to be beat up a little bit. Right? And I'm past the worrying about the Achilles. The Achilles is clearly fine. He played. He played 35 minutes in his last game. He played. What do you play in this game? Where am I? 36. 36. Like 36 and a half minutes. This is, this is like normal regular season minutes for Jason Tatum. This is shocking. This is absolutely shocking that, that Tatum can play this many minutes at this point. And he said it after the game, he's winded, he's tired, so it's, it's a struggle, but he's pushing himself and that this is good. This is good. So not a great game overall, shooting wise and still has some pockets of looking just bad for stretches and then looking great for stretches. This is how it's going to be. But again, when you. When you can say all the things that I just said and look at the box score and be like, 26, 12 and 5, you're a bad boy. All right, let's wrap it up here by saying Jordan Walsh underrated game. I hope that that doesn't get lost in. In all of this. Jordan, six straight DNPs didn't play in eight of 10. One of those games was like a minute and a half. He's. He clearly has fallen out of the rotation. But once again, this team, this amazing Celtics team finds like, guys aren't supposed to be able to do what Jordan did, what Baylor Scheireman is doing, what Luca Garza is doing, to be in and out of the lineup to get minutes and then lose them and then get them back and then to lose your minutes and then come back and be good is incredible. A testament to these guys for sure, but also a testament to what this team is, what the culture is, what the coaching is. The coaching staff, the players in the locker room just keep pumping each other up. Jordan comes in and plays incredible defense. Three blocked shots. And how many plays did he disrupt? Just. There's no stat for being disruptive, but, man, if there was a stat for being disruptive, he would have had whatever that state. He would have led the Celtics in whatever that stat is. Just a really nice game from him. That one dunk, you know, down in the dunker spot, operating there, getting that pass from Tatum and getting that dunk. He almost had a second one. That block at the end of the. Was it the half was. That was tough. Got smacked in the face, but he had a three pointer. Offensively, he's just there. Part of like overflow, but gets a couple of offensive rebounds is. Is part of being disruptive. It's. I cannot express how important it is for Joe Missoula to look down the bench and say, yes, I know I can count on any one of these guys that I know I haven't played Jordan in six games, but I know I can call on him right now and he'll. He'll get in there and he'll. He'll perform. And people will say, well, why isn't he in there more? Because there's only so many minutes to go around at this point. And especially as they start to ramp up now we're going to start getting the ramp up minutes. Nine games left. The Celtics are about 49 and 24. So nine games left. The. We're going to need to see guys start ramping up playoff minutes. So there's going to be less for the guys on the bench. And Jordan's just one of the guys that since Tatum's return, he. He's the guy that's been kind of shut out. Baylor's been playing great, so Jordan's just kind of like supporting role, so. But it's, it's an incredible testament to him that he's able to do this. Now. I don't know what Jordan's future is. He's under contract for next year. But whatever, whatever his future ends up being if I'm another team, I look at this and I say, you know what? I'm super impressed by this kid still going out there and performing and not sulking and not being in his own head and not pressing or anything like that. I'm massively impressed by Jordan Walsh putting in a game like this, that the stats don't jump off the page. But you watch that game, you're like, damn, Jordan made an impact on that game. So the advanced scouts, you'd be like, hey, listen, we'll. We'll give Jordan Walsh minutes. He deserves minutes. Whether it's in Boston or somewhere else, he deserves minutes. So impressive. Super impressive. Just quickly, Namish Kaeda thought was really good for large stretches of this game. He had. He tied for the team leading assist. He, it was him. Tatum, Derek each had five assists. Neemi in the short roll, his passing has been incredible. I don't know. I can't put a finger on what the biggest development for him this season is other than like all of them. All his development this season, excuse me, has been great. And his, his passing has really, really been a revelation. So him in the short roll, finding guys, it's. It unlocks something when he's able to make read, when Kate is able to make reads, find guys in the corner, find guys, you know, from the top of the key. Cutting that stuff is massively, massively important for the team's success because you can trust him in the ball. You know, a handoff at the top of the key where he fakes it, then turns and looks and sees with floor. And now you have to, you have to respect the handoff. You also have to respect his ability to pass. You have to respect the cut. So all of it works together. He's, he's just been really, really good. So I thought he was good in this game. Sam Houser was okay. Baylor Sherman was okay. Although he was A team worst -13, you know, he still got in there for three offensive rebounds. So he was on the floor for the worst of it, but he still found ways to make an impact. Derrick White, like I said, bad game. Just a rough, rough night for, for Derek. Go crack a Sam Adams. Just relax. Just brush it off. 3 of 13 Shooting is tough. You're not going to see that very often. And shout out to Luca Garza for, you know, playing 15 minutes and the 15 minutes that he was in were just super high energy. Same same thing with him. He, when, when he plays, he is nothing but maximum, maximum effort. He's one of those guys you just. He deserves to be in the league. He deserves to be on a team. He deserves to be getting minutes. So if he's here next year, great. If he's not, whatever team he's on, he will, he will be on an NBA team next year. I can't imagine any team looking at him and saying he doesn't belong in the league. He'll be somewhere. Now where that is, I don't know. Again, if it's in Boston, that would be great because I think he, you can rely on him on this exact role. So whatever Keda becomes next season, starter, bench, if they bring in somebody to be a starter or if they start Kada and bring in a bench guy and Luca's the third guy, he can thrive in that. That's all good. That's all good. If Luca goes somewhere else, he'll find a spot where he can, his skill set will be appreciated because just whatever you ask him to do, he'll go in there and do. It's great. All right. So impressive win for the Celtics just because they kept on fighting. Stuck with it. So my voice is basically done. So I'm going to wrap up the podcast and say thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Do appreciate, appreciate you being an every day. 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