Lighting has struck twice in the NBA Finals. For the second straight game at the TD Garden, Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard hit an incredible half-court buzzer-beater ahead of half-time, and stars Trae Young and Ja Morant just couldn’t seem to get enough of it, as they gushed on social media.
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Memphis Grizzlies superstar Ja Morant fittingly posed that the 26-year-old is starting to make a habit out of making these incredible circus shots. He said, “He really don’t be missing these!” on X [Formerly Twitter].
he really don’t be missing these https://t.co/eLQ7brtM3h
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) June 18, 2024
Similarly to his fellow NBA guard, Trae Young was also not too surprised that the Celtics man made the shot. In fact, if his words on X are anything to go by, he even called the shot going in well before it did.
I called that Payton Pritchard shot he really be making those!
— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) June 18, 2024
The shot in question proved to be a major smack to the gut for the Dallas Mavericks. After all, while they were behind, there were embers of momentum emanating from the side at the time. However, after the Texan side saw this shot go in, they almost seemed deflated for the rest of the game, which effectively killed any chance of a comeback.
Due to this, Celtics head coach, Joe Mazzula couldn’t help but take the time out to pat Pritchard on the back for his shot. He also praised the Boston guard for taking pride in these shots, despite the rest of the league thinking of them as nothing more than an afterthought.
“”I think the play of the game can’t go unnoticed — the humility of our team — is Payton’s shot at the end of the quarter. You see guys around the league pass up on that shot, or fake like they want to take it so that their numbers don’t get messed up. [But Payton Pritchard] takes pride in taking that, and that’s winning basketball.”
Ironically, Payton was woeful from beyond the arc in the series. Through four games, he shot just 2-of-15 on three-point attempts, with one being the buzzer-beater in Game 2 and his half-court heave in Game 5 was only his third conversion from beyond the arc.
However, when the basketball fraternity reminisces about this series in the future, not many will point out that Pritchard was 3-of-16 on three-point attempts. Instead, they will continue to be in awe of just how confident the 26-year-old was in taking and making his shot.
