Post Game - Celtics vs. Charlotte Hornets - Monday, April 12 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585801

Celtics-Hornets takeaways: Pritchard leads C's reserves to dominant win

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-hornets-takeaways-pritchard-leads-015458207.html

Justin Leger
Fri, Apr 12, 2024, 10:16 PM EDT·4 min read




Celtics-Hornets takeaways: Pritchard leads C's reserves to dominant win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics' reserves got a chance to shine in Friday night's showdown with the Charlotte Hornets, and they took advantage of their opportunity.

With the top six out for the penultimate game of their regular season, the C's went with a starting lineup of Payton Pritchard, Svi Mykhailuk, Jaden Springer, Sam Hauser, and Luke Kornet. Neemias Queta, Jordan Walsh, JD Davison, and Drew Peterson were recalled from Maine to get minutes on the big stage.

The "Stay Ready" group put on an offensive clinic in their 131-98 rout of the Hornets. Pritchard led the way with a career-high 31 points. Hauser, Kornet, and Queta chipped in 16 apiece. All 11 Celtics scored in the lopsided victory.

The C's will wrap up their regular season against the Washington Wizards on "Mike Gorman Day" this Sunday at TD Garden. The game is set to tip off at 1 p.m. ET right here on NBC Sports Boston.

First, here are three takeaways from Friday's action.

Payton Pritchard plays the starring role

On many other NBA rosters, Pritchard would be a regular starter. And a good one at that.

The Celtics' prized bench guard showed his potential again in his fourth start of the season. Leading the reserves with the top six sidelined, Pritchard went off for 13 points and five assists in the first quarter. It was the highest-scoring opening frame of his NBA career and according to Celtics stats guru Dick Lipe, he became the first C's player since Isaiah Thomas in Jan. 2017 with 13 points and five assists in a first quarter.

Pritchard scored or assisted on 24 of the Celtics' first 30 points. He stayed hot in the second quarter to enter the half with 23 points and nine assists. He's the first Celtic in the play-by-play era with those numbers in the first half of a game, per Dick Lipe.



Pritchard finished with a career-high 31 points (14-21 FG), accomplishing the feat with three minutes left in the third quarter. He dished 11 assists -- two shy of his career-high -- while adding two rebounds and a steal in 31 minutes.

The Mainers get some minutes

Friday's game presented the perfect opportunity to give the Maine Celtics standouts more time on the TD Garden parquet. Recent draft picks Jordan Walsh and JD Davison joined the team along with Drew Peterson and Neemias Queta, who signed a full NBA contract earlier this week.

Walsh, Boston's lone pick in the 2023 draft, recorded the first made 3-pointer of his NBA career early in the game:



He notched eight points (3-4 FG), three rebounds, and a steal in 20 minutes.



Davison, a second-round pick in 2022, showed off his playmaking ability with seven assists in 17 minutes. He also tallied seven points (3-7 FG) and four rebounds.

Queta, the star of Maine's G League Finals Game 1 win on Tuesday, led the bench with 16 points on 8-of-10 from the floor. In addition, he had six rebounds, five assists, and two steals in 18 minutes.



Peterson logged the first points of his Celtics career during the fourth quarter. The sharpshooter ended with eight points (3-4 FG) in 12 minutes.

The Maine Celtics will play the decisive Game 3 of the G League Finals on Monday against the Oklahoma City Blue.

Bounce-back effort on the boards

The Celtics have struggled in the rebounding department lately, including in their last two losses to Milwaukee and New York. Perhaps some of their issues can be attributed to a lack of effort in meaningless regular-season games and the playoffs looming.

The reserves didn't lack effort Friday against Charlotte, however. They dominated the boards 53-33, including 16 offensive rebounds to the Hornets' four. They had an 18-8 advantage in second-chance points.

Kornet contributed 10 rebounds to go with his 16 points, marking his first double-double since 2019. Oshae Brissett brought the energy off the bench, racking up a whopping 11 boards (six offensive) in 15 minutes. He added eight points, an assist, and a steal.



Jaden Springer chipped in six rebounds in an outstanding defensive performance that included three steals. He also got the job done on the offensive end with 11 points.

The Celtics regulars will look to replicate the reserves' effort when the playoffs get underway later this month.

it was good to see the kids play as hard as they did last night. We have some talent up in Maine, hope they win the final game. They have busted their backs this year

It's hard to believe the Hornets are this bad.  I mean, c'mon, we didn't play any of our top 6 players.  It was our 7-15 vs their entire squad, and it was a 33 point blowout.

Brad trading Brogdon in order to mollify Payton's competitive nature and resign him to a 4 year $30M deal this past summer is looking like pure genius now.  I don't know if he could start on a team competing for a Championship but he sure could start on weaker teams.  When you have a starter-anywhere-else-but-here coming off your bench you have great depth.  That's what we had with Malcolm last year, and he was NBA 6th Man (if he and The Time Lord weren't injured we might have gone further in the playoffs).  Payton is still 7th in the NBA in assist-to-turnover ratio at 4.6:1, just .1 behind Halliburton and VanVleet @ 4.7.  That's the most impressive improvement in his game this year, for me.  I now trust him to run an NBA offense, and that is why he could start on some other team.

Bobby Manning @RealBobManning
about 10 hours ago
Pritchard/Gallinari & draft capital for Poetl last deadline has quietly become one of those great “what if” in a bad way trades that didn’t happen. Not quite the Justise Winslow draft night deal, but would’ve toppled dominos.

Remember that crazy attempt by Danny to give away the store so he could move up and draft Justise Winslow? Winslow is now playing for the Raptors...on their G-league team. Everybody screws up, including Pat Riley. I bet Riley wishes he could have done that one over again.




As Rosalie pointed out we have some talent in Maine.  

Walsh is shooting 36% from 3 in Maine.  That is mediocre, for sure, but it's better than the 27.8% he shot at Arkansas.  That's not what will get him called up to Boston, and he knows it.  His calling card is defense.  He needs to become the absolute lockdown defender I believe he can be.  He just turned 20 40 days ago.  Deep breath, young fella, and focus on the long game.

Davison with 7 assists and only 1 turnover.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that he's still only shooting 26.6% from 3 in Maine.  In today's NBA players, other than some centers, have to be able to catch-and-shoot open 3s with a high degree of efficiency.  Unlike Walsh, Davison's 3pt fg% is lower this year than last year.  I don't get it, I really don't.  EVERYBODY knows that's his weak spot.  If I was him I'd be living in the gym doing nothing but launching 1000 3s every day.  


Q wants to play.  16 points on 8-10, 6 rebounds, 4 of them offensive, and 5 assists without a turnover.  2 steals.  It seems to me that a front court of Z, Al, Luke, X and Q is a lot of centers.  4 pure centers and one C/F.  Z is signed long-term.  Al has one more year @ $9.4M.  Will we keep Luke and X and Q next year?  I never thought I'd say this but I'd be sorry to see Luke go.  He has been the biggest surprise of the past 1 1/2 years, and it's been a pleasant one.












Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
If the Celtics beat the Wizards by 25 or more Sunday, they'll finish as the 2nd most dominant home team in NBA history.




Cameron Tabatabaie
@CTabatabaie
The Celtics are now tied for the 4th best record in franchise history





Bob


.

Boy the rumor mill is out there hot and heavy, just 3 days after Jrue signing. Now I have seen on more than one site, Derrick back to Spurts, Kornet to Memphis, i cannot imagine celtics giving up on White, but these guys are out there. Heavy, whis has Steve Bullpett as a main writer, is constantly out there spouting off. Let's get thru this year firsst

I agree