Vucevic’s Debut, A Disastrous Superbowl Sunday, And Are the Lights to Bright for Pritchard?

Week’s Results:

110 – 100 W @ Mavericks

114 – 93 W @ Rockets

98 – 96 W vs Heat

111 – 89 L vs Knicks

Vucevic Debut – A Potential Bench Boost for Boston?

Nikola Vucevic arrived in Boston on Wednesday, excited to finally be back on a team with legitimate playoff hopes. The Montenegrin center had just two days to integrate himself into Joe Mazzulla’s system, before he was thrust into Friday night’s game vs Miami. Vucevic was Mazzulla’s first sub – alongside Payton Pritchard – as Boston trailed early in the game. It did not take long for the newest Celtic to get leave his mark on the -game, however as he quickly racked up a double-double and finished a +10 in his first 28 minutes in green. Head Coach Mazzulla admitted after the game he “thought he put guys in a tough position to start the game”, as he tried to integrate Vucevic into the Celtics offense. Boston’s adjustments in the second half sore them come back from down 21 at the half to win by two points.

A Disastrous Superbowl Sunday Ruined an otherwise Fantastic Week for Boston

The Celtics short road trip to Texas to begin the week was nothing short of a success, as Jaylen Brown dominated the Cooper Flagg led Mavericks on Tuesday night. Boston then made the short journey to Houston were we witnessed quite possibly the best win of the season. Mazzulla’s men were without star Brown who decided to sit out on the second night of the back-to-back, as well as Sam Hauser, yet they managed to blow the Rockets completely out of the water. White, Queta and Pritchard were simply outstanding, and the Celtics got healthy contributions from Scheierman, Harper and Garza to topple the 4 seeded Rockets on the road. Unfortunately, the Cs rounded out the week with a resounding loss to the New York Knicks, which was perhaps a sign of things to come for Boston sports fans. Boston fell 111-89 in a game were they never really looked like they could compete on either side of the ball. New York executed their offense excellently – especially in the first half – as Jalen Brunson controlled proceedings. The loss cut a five-game winning streak for Boston who next face Chicago on Wednesday.

Are the Lights Too Bright for Payton Pritchard?

Not to single out one particular player, but Payton Pritchard had an incredibly disappointing performance in the loss to New York. Personally, I feel Pritchard often goes missing in key matchups, this is definitely amplified this season by his increased usage rate without Jayson Tatum in the lineup. Overall Pritchard has had a fairly productive year so far averaging 17.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 5.3 assists on 46/36/86 shooting splits. However, when you take a closer look at his statistics vs the top four seeds in each conference you will notice a sharp dip in his points per game, 3pt % and field goal %. To some extent this is expected as the higher seeds are generally some of the better defensive teams, but his inefficiency from three (27.8%) is worrying. Boston is just 5-8 as a team against those opponents this term and Pritchard’s underwhelming performances have been a contributing factor.