One Possession: “Coldest white boy” gets red-hot in Celtics' win

One Possession: “Coldest white boy” gets red-hot in Celtics' win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

NBA Games don’t typically boil down to just one possession. But one possession can often tell the story of a game. This is “One Possession,” a recurring series where we highlight one notable sequence from every Celtics game during the 2026-27 season.

Payton Pritchard’s third-quarter outburst had TD Garden rocking on Monday night, but our favorite part was when our NBC Sports Boston cameras cut to the crowd and there, amid all the green-clad Celtics revelers, was a Bulls fans in a Zach LaVine jersey clapping his hands in appreciation, too.

Allen Iverson proved you don’t need to be a Celtics fan to marvel at how Pritchard can take over a game. And the “coldest white boy” certainly got red hot as part of a 19-point third-quarter outburst in Monday’s 134-99 thrashing of the Bulls.

View this post on Instagram

Pritchard’s night crescendoed in the final two minutes of the third quarter. Neemias Queta and Sam Hauser fought to keep a possession alive and Pritchard walked into a 30-foot straightaway 3-pointer that put Boston up 98-73 with 1:48 to play in the frame.

The NBA’s tracking gave Pritchard a 37.6 percent expected field goal percentage on the deep attempt. We’re thinking that there’s only a select few like Pritchard and Steph Curry that can be pegged to shoot better than league average on a 30-foot bomb with a defender rushing out to contest.

But Pritchard sent the Garden into full delirium the next trip down. Everyone in the building knew the heat check was coming and Pritchard put Buddy Hield in the blender before stepping back on a 26-foot triple. The expected field goal percentage dipped to 31.7 percent on that attempt but it felt like 100 percent chance of going in with how hot Pritchard was at that point.

Pritchard finished 10-of-16 shooting overall, while connecting on 7 of 10 3-pointers. His expected field goal percentage overall pegged him at 40.5 percent, but he finished at 62.5 percent. It’s even more jarring when you look at expected effective field goal percentage, which jumped 32.7 percent from 51.7 expected to 84.4 percent actual.

View this post on Instagram

Pritchard, fresh off inking a 2-year, $44.2 million extension before the start of the regular season, continued a familiar trend of being a little slow out of the gates to start the new campaign. Pritchard was quiet against two of the more physical teams in the league in Detroit and New York but got himself activated against the Bulls. 

Therein lies the challenge for Pritchard this season. While he’s most certainly left his imprint on the biggest stages, especially all those buzzer-beating heaves during Boston’s 2024 title run, he needs to be a more consistent presence against the best teams in the league. The departure of Jaylen Brown insists that Boston’s supporting cast elevate in those moments, and everyone from Pritchard to Paul George to Derrick White need to be secondary scoring options if the NBA’s best teams put much of their energy into slowing Jayson Tatum.

Pritchard, who averaged just two drives per game in Boston’s first two outings of the season, was much more aggressive against Chicago. Good things happen when he touches the paint. Three of Pritchard’s four assists on the night led to 3-pointers, and his 11 assist points generated were second on the team behind only Tatum (14 points generated on 6 total assists).

Boston’s bench unit can be a differentiator for the team throughout the season. Pritchard was a plus-22 in his 21 minutes on Monday. Hauser (team-best plus-36), Hugo Gonzalez (plus-34), and Queta (plus-32) were all super impactful in their floor time as well.

And even opposing fanbases clearly appreciate how Pritchard can impact winning.