Payton Pritchard Continues To Completely Dominate The Entire NBA And It Is Beyond Glorious

Brian Fluharty. Getty Images.

Once upon a time, the Celtics and Heat had themselves a pretty good rivalry. In fact, I would argue it was one of the only true rivalries in the league and not something fake and manufactured by ESPN. The type of beef that only happens when you face the same team in multiple playoff series, with each side finding success. 

Recently, things have been a bit one-sided and the idea of that "rivalry" is pretty much dead. At the very least, it definitely lost its juice a little bit as the two franchises look to be going in the opposite direction. Last night's ass kicking certainly was more the rule than the exception, with the Celts now winning 4 straight against the Heat and 7 of their last 8. If you go back to Game 4 of the 2023 ECF, the Celts have won 10 of the last 12 against MIA.

Last night it was a battle of depth with both sides missing a majority of their rotation players. The Heat didn't have Butler, Jovic, Richardson, Love etc and the Celts didn't have Al, KP, Jrue, Hauser. It gave us a look at how good each side is at building their entire roster, and the result was pretty much what you should have expected. These rosters are not close, even when you remove half of the Celtics top 8 players. 

Whatever mental hurdle that used to exist for the Celts in this matchup, it sure does look like they've overcome it. The Spo black magic appears to be solved by Mazzulla Ball, and now it's Spo who can't seem to find an answer. They got the Celts missing half their guys combined with a Tatum stinker and they STILL found themselves on the wrong end of an ass kicking. 

For the Celts, they continued to prove to the world that it's nearly impossible for them to drop back to back games. When they fuck up and blow a game they shouldn't like the CLE loss, they always immediately respond. This is a team that lost 2 games in a row just 4 times last season in over 100 games. Nobody stops the bleeding better than them, and that's why it's going to be hard for a team to beat the Celts 4 times in 7 games. They just don't lose at that kind of rate. You get 1 loss every 5 games, it's been that way for 1.25 seasons and last night was more of the same.

Now, just because this isn't really a rivalry anymore doesn't mean I still don't enjoy the shit out of blowing out the Heat. It's very fun. I highly recommend it. If anything, I'm annoyed at the deep bench for letting up at the end and letting the score look somewhat respectable when this was floating around 24-25 at times in the 4th. Those guys really have to figure out the whole protect the point differential thing. 

With that said, let's begin.

The Good

- There's only one choice to start with today. The basketball that Payton Pritchard is playing right now isn't just good for a player off the bench, it's legitimately All Star level basketball. There is no gimmick, no random hot streak, no unsustainable play. This is just who Payton Pritchard has developed into

First off, shoutout Isaiah. What a player.

On a night when half the rotation was out, we all knew this was going to be a Payton Pritchard night. The reason you don't have to worry when guys sit is because Joe has this demon at his disposal who just so happens to be playing the best basketball of his life. In fact, it would have been a shock had Payton not had his way with the Heat. They don't possess anywhere close to the level of perimeter defender you need to stay in front of Payton, and then when they tried to go with their zone it took about 2 seconds for Payton to bury three after three after three. 

Watching him carve up the Heat defense you could tell how disgusted he was that Spo would disrespect him by having a white guy guard him. He really did turn into Larry Bird

After every bucket, he went right at Spo with death stares. He talked his shit. It was the cherry on top of another fantastic Payton Pritchard performance

Listen, I know you may think I'm biased when it comes to this, which is fine. Don't take my word for it. Take it from Spo himself

That's the face of a defeated man. The season is only about 25 percent of the way through and I feel comfortable in suggesting that the 6MOY race is over. Barring injury, that thing is a wrap. 

What continues to impress me about Pritchard's season isn't just the outside shooting. We know he can do that. I continue to be impressed with how productive he is inside the arc. A few years ago I couldn't imagine a shot chart from Pritchard looking like this

with nearly half of his FGM coming inside the paint. He's gotten so much better at using his body and his strength to create space at the rim, it's changed everything about his shot profile. Now more comfortable driving with the addition of the Nash Dribble to his arsenal, there really is no weakness in his offensive game which is CRAZY to say for a player coming off the bench. If he can't score himself, he now understands how to keep his dribble alive and find an open guy once the defense has collapsed. No more panicking and picking up his dribble allowing the defense to swarm him. His efficiency on 2pt FGA has been Pritchard's leap this season, and it's what has turned him into a consistent 20 point scorer off the bench. What a story.

- Last night was a pretty good example of why matchups are so important, especially when you're playing the Celtics. As we know, if you don't have the perimeter defenders to handle their two best players, you're food. I think it's safe to say Tyler Herro cannot do it

Welcome to the problem the Heat have in this matchup. Their offense is so dogshit that Tyler Herro has to be on the floor for them to have a chance. The problem with that of course is whatever he's giving MIA on one end, he's giving up on the other. Joe is going to find your weakness and he's going to exploit the shit out of it, not to different from what we saw against the Cavs and Garland. The difference this time of course was the execution. 

It wasn't just Herro, we saw it against Alec Burks

We saw it against Haywood Highsmith

and I'm sorry to inform any Heat fan that might be reading this blog, Jimmy Butler doesn't solve that either. In fact, the last time Butler played against the Celts, not only did BOS win by 30+, the Jays combined for 48 points on 14-24 while barely playing 30 minutes, so he wasn't stopping shit either. 

You then compare it to the other side, and you had depth pieces like Jordan Walsh and Baylor Scheierman holding up defensively. Drew Peterson was doing some shit on both ends. So while the high end talent between these two teams doesn't look to be all that close, the same is true when it comes to the depth as well. Even the reserves are a tough matchup if you don't have the wing defenders you need.

- On a night where Tatum didn't have it going offensively, those are the games where it's crucial that Jaylen makes sure he shows up, and I'd say his 29/7/4 in his 31 minutes fit the bill

The efficiency wasn't quite there (8-21, 4-11), but that mostly came as a result of Jaylen missing some wide-open bunnies at the rim so it's mostly whatever to me. I trust his ability to finish in the restricted area. It was also nice to see him go 9-10 from the FT line, and if he's going to be floating around the high 70s or low 80s from the line, I'd say that's a pretty big deal. Turning a weakness into a strength is always welcomed around these parts, and he looks so much more comfortable at the line this season.

On the year, Jaylen is now up to at least 25/6/4, and you know who else in the entire NBA is on that list?

Giannis, Jokic, Luka, and Tatum.

That's it. Just those 5 players are doing that so far this season in the entire NBA, and the Celts have two of them. So when we say the Jays are the best duo in the NBA, we are not lying. Respect your basketball overlords

Brian Babineau. Getty Images.

I'd also like to point out that after what I would call a disastrous start from behind the arc this season when Jaylen was floating around the mid 20s from deep, ever since he came back from his injury he's shooting 38.6% from three in those 9 games. If you subtract his first game back given the rust of missing 4 straight, he's shooting 40% on 8.1 3PA. I think it's safe to say his 3 ball is returning back to the normal level, which makes him pretty damn tough to guard. 

- While we have come to expect a Payton Pritchard explosion and Jaylen going for 29 is pretty much the norm, the surprise of the night has to belong to Luke Kornet. All that crying from Bam about not being the DPOY, well he wasn't even the best center on the court in this game. 

6 blocks on the night tied a career high, and he had Bam in HELL defensively, holding him to just 6-18 and a majority of those makes were stat padding once the game was over. The fact that this is the Celts 3rd center and he'd be the best center on the Heat goes a long way in explaining the talent discrepancy between these two teams. Luke is a guy who fully understands his role, never tries to do too much, and knows exactly what he's supposed to do and where to be on the court. 

If he perfect? No. You'll get a play or two like that fumbled airballed lob which seemed impossible in real time, but overall he's about as solid as solid comes in terms of a backup center. His ability to contest without fouling continues to get better and better, and he's talked about how before he was always worried about the call and now he's just being aggressive, and the results speak for themselves. 

- If we've seen it once, we've seen it a thousand times. You cannot trade 2s for 3s against the Celts and think that's going to get the job done. Even on a night where BOS didn't even shoot all that well (43/34%) all you had to do was look at the 3pt difference.

MIA: 8-35

BOS: 19-55

You aren't going to out-math Mazzulla Ball. The Heat and the Celts both took around the same amount of FGA (89 vs 87), but shot profile is everything. If you A). Don't limit their 3PA and B) Don't take enough yourself, you're going to get C). Blown the fuck out.

- Defensively, you didn't just watch one of the best performances of the season (89 points, 35/22% splits), you witnessed one of the best defensive performances of the Joe Mazzulla Era

The 3s are fun, the passing is erotic, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING is more important than the Celts defending at a high level. That is the backbone of Mazzulla Ball and it will always be the foundation of their success. People think the Celts are dominant because they shoot a fuck ton of 3s, and while that's part of it, the real root of their dominance is when they are impossible to score on. The way they break you defensively and have you in hell at all five positions is what sparks everything, and when they operate as a well-oiled defensive machine, games like this are the result. 

This is the part of their season that should continue to improve over time, just like it did last year. To do it without 3 of your best defenders tells me that everyone was locked in and bought in to defending at a high level last night, and that's exactly how you get back into the top 5 defensively. Top to bottom jail.

- Boy was it nice to have Derrick White back in our lives again. Another night of him doing pretty much everything on both ends of the floor, he's just such a joy to watch on a nightly basis

First off, we can all exhale about that sore foot. I'm not sure what the hell that was, but he looked fine to me. With no Jrue it was on Derrick to handle all the guard duties, and between his efficiency (7-14, 5-12), his playmaking (8 AST, 2 TO), and his rebounding (6), it's no surprise he was a +21 in his 31 minutes. 

That's the beauty of Derrick White. Whatever you need him to do in any given game, he's going to do it at an extremely high level with a smile on his face. The way he has essentially morphed into Klay Thompson as a shooter continues to be one fo the most insane shooting development stories in recent NBA history, and it's at the point now where there is not a shot that I don't want Derrick taking. Pull ups from 30ft? Hell yeah. A quick trigger 3PA off a soft switch? Yes please. Stepbacks? Eat your heart out. His green light is as green as it can possibly be.

- So, how about getting some not completely terrible minutes from Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh? I wouldn't say they were impactful or anything, but they weren't terrible which to me is progress. Very much a "just don't screw up" approach, but that's fine by me. They were minutes eaters in this game and at least both guys looked confident on the floor. 

Walsh's defense was more than solid, Baylor had that one nice pass to the corner on a Jaylen 3, these are the baby steps that you like to see in games when Joe goes with his deep bench. They both still have MILES to go, but this to me was a step in the right direction for both guys. 

The Bad

- I'm going to need someone to explain to me how Jayson Tatum can go 36 minutes and take a total of one (1) FTA. I'm not sure what the hell is going on with his whistle, but it's starting to get insane. This wasn't a night where Tatum only shot 3s, he was aggressive at times, and I'm to believe he was just never fouled? 

Coming off the CLE game where his whistle was once again dogshit, it's getting out of hand. No player of his stature has this same whistle. Hell, Jaime Jaquez Jr was getting everything called for him, as was Herro, but Tatum can't get the same whistle on contact when he drives as they did? Make that make sense.

- I think we now see why Xavier Tillman isn't playing. I'm not sure what the hell happened to him, but he looks more and more cooked on both ends of the floor the more he plays. His ability to switch and stay in front of smaller players is essentially nonexistent, and then what he's giving on offense looks even worse.

It brings up an interesting question. If X is going to be that much of a liability, and the team thinks maybe Queta can handle that reserve role, do they flip Tillman at the deadline for another position? Or, is this just something they deal with in the event they need his size or strength in a playoff series? 

The whole appeal of Tillman was his switchability defensively, and if that's gone I'm not sure he can see the floor. Maybe it's a rhythm thing which I don't think you can rule out, but he certainly needs to play better when given his opportunity. 

- I don't think we've ever seen the Celts start a half with 4 straight TOs. I mean holy hell was that brutal to watch. Lazy pass after lazy pass, it was like PTSD of the ECF all over again

I'm not sure it's possible to start a half worse than that. I'm not sure what the hell Tatum was doing, his passing was dogshit all night but some of these decisions were just bizarre. 

The Ugly

- It won't happen often, but there's really no other way to put Tatum's night. Easily the worst game of his season, I'm not sure if he's sick or what, but he was as nonexistent as you could possibly be. He probably should take a game off given his workload, but we all know he won't. That's what makes Jayson Tatum who he is. He plays, no matter what.

But at some point, Brad might need to save him from himself, because the quality of basketball we saw last night sure as shit ain't it. Just 7-21 (3-12) with 6 TOs, I was actually a little surprised Joe didn't give him an early exit with around 5 minutes to go in a blowout. Given the schedule this week, Tatum getting all the rest he can should be the goal. 

The good news is these type of performances have been few and far between this season, so it's not like there's any reason to panic or anything like that. He just had an off night on both ends of the floor, shit happens. With another B2B on the horizon, I wonder if they give Tatum Wednesday off just to allow him to reset, because he looks like he might need one.

At 17-4, the Celts also own the NBA's best point differential (again) at +10.2, so you could say things are back on track. Nobody responds better to a loss than the Champs, and it always feels extra sweet when it comes at the expense of the Heat. RIP to what was once a great rivalry.