Celtics' Payton Pritchard Brutally Honest About Limited Minutes in Game 1

The Boston Celtics faced off with the Orlando Magic in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference, winning by a final score of 103-86.

The Celtics won on the back of an all-around scoring effort. Derrick White led the way with 30 points, while Payton Pritchard added 19 points of his own.

Interestingly, it took a bit for Pritchard to check into the game, different from how things went in the regular season.

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Pritchard is the favorite to win Sixth-Man-of-the-Year due to his elite play off the bench. In this game, he played great in 25 minutes, but he didn’t enter the game until 1:50 left in the first quarter.

Al Horford, Luke Kornet, and Sam Hauser all entered the game before him, which was unexpected.

When asked about it, here is how Pritchard responded.

I asked Payton Pritchard about checking into Game 1 later than usual & his growth:

"As a young player, you might mentally get frustrated. You might be like, ‘Oh, I’m not playing as much tonight.’”

Now, it doesn't matter:

“I’m gonna come out and give you everything I got." pic.twitter.com/yHHseYk0BN
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) April 22, 2025

“As a young player, you might mentally get frustrated. You might be like, ‘Oh, I’m not playing as much tonight.’

Now, it doesn't matter:

“I’m gonna come out and give you everything I got.”

This response embodies the championship mindset of the Boston Celtics. The players are bought in, and willing to do whatever takes to win, even if that means sacrificing minutes to others.

In the end, Pritchard played really well and earned more play time as the game went on, but it will be interesting if his late entrance into the game will become a pattern, or if this is just an anomaly.

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The most likely reason for this strategy from Joe Mazzulla is the size of the Magic roster. Besides Cory Joseph and Cole Anthony, the rest of the Magic roster has plenty of size and length to give Pritchard trouble.

However, clearly either the strategy worked, or the Magic length really didn’t bother Pritchard, because he was an efficient 6-8 shooting and 4-6 from three.

Pritchard averaged 28 minutes per game on the season, starting just three games, so the 25 minutes he played in this game may be the norm for the playoffs. That should be the case against the Magic, but it will be interesting to see how Pritchard’s minutes change, if it all, against other teams in the playoffs.

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