Some Good News on the Health front for the C's
The broken nose injury suffered by Payton Pritchard last week, won't keep him out of the season opener against New York.
For a change, the news on the injury/illness front is a good one for the Boston Celtics with the news that second-year guard Payton Pritchard will be available to play.
The second-year guard suffered a broken nose injury in the team's Oct. 13 preseason loss at Orlando.
Orlando's Ignas Brazdeikis inadvertently hit Pritchard in the face with about a minute remaining in the second quarter. The Celtics quickly subbed Pritchard out of the game to conduct additional testing. The team announced shortly before the start of the third quarter that Pritchard would not return.
Since the injury, Pritchard has been fitted for a face mask which he says he intends to wear in Boston's season-opener at New York.
"When it originally happened, I didn't know, I got hit, regular hit," he said. "Obviously, I felt I got hit hard. But once the blood started running, I knew I was going to have to come out real quick. I was trying to come back in the game because I didn't know my nose was broken but it ended up being broken. Obviously, got it fixed and get my mask that I'll be playing in, Wednesday."
Shortly after suffering the injury, medical officials told him he might feel some pain when it came time to reset it.
"It wasn't painful at all," he said. "They told me it was going to hurt, putting it back into place and stuff like that but I didn't really feel anything."
While Pritchard may not jump off the scouting report as a player to keep tabs on closely, he is very much a wild card of sorts whose play could be the difference in Boston winning or losing.
He's coming off a strong showing with the Boston Celtics' summer league squad in which he averaged 16.9 points, 8.5 assists and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 46.9 percent from 3-point range.
Pritchard's play was good enough to earn a spot on the Las Vegas Summer League First-team.
There are a number of guards on the Celtics roster whose play and experience give them an edge in terms of playing time at the start of this season.
Marcus Smart will most likely be the team's starting point guard. Dennis Schröder will see some time at the position as well, as well as Josh Richardson who can play both backcourt positions because of his 6-foot-5 frame and overall versatility as a defender.
As good as those players may be, Pritchard's shot-making will make him a valuable piece of the Green team puzzle this season.
In addition to his shot-making skills, he also has one of the better feels among the guards when it comes to running an offense.
When you pair his strengths up with a lineup that may include Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Al Horford, he has the dual ability to get them the ball in spots where they can be impactful, in addition to knocking down shots if teams decide to leave him alone.