Pritchard leads Celtics in bounce-back win over Raptors: Takeaways

And, perhaps most important to Joe Mazzulla, Pritchard rarely turns it over. He finished Friday’s game with eight assists and one turnover, which will boost his assist-to-turnover ratio that is currently fourth in the NBA among players who play 15 minutes or more per game (and Pritchard plays 10 or more minutes more than any of the three players above him).

“Growing up, when I played up for my age and in high school, when I was a freshman, and when I was a freshman in college, I wasn’t going to be on the court if I turned the ball over,” Pritchard said. “So my job was at first, it’s like, run the offense, don’t turn it over, and only take open shots. And so I learned how to master that, and it’s kind of carried on.”

Pritchard finished Friday’s game with a team-high 27 points 12-for-19 shooting.

“To be honest, I don’t even know if I figured it out fully yet,” he said. “It’s still a learning process. Every game, just keep growing and growing. I don’t know. How many games are we in? 30-something? So I feel like I’ve gotten better from the beginning of the year, but still more steps to go.”

The Celtics only shot 28 3-pointers

The Celtics’ previous season low in 3-pointers attempted was 33, which they hit twice against the Magic (in a pair of wins, notably). That’s not a recipe for success — the Celtics are now just 7-5 when they attempt fewer than 40 3-pointers in a game — but they are good enough to find ways to win even when their opponents can take an important part of the game away.

“Every game is going to be different,” Pritchard said. “I felt like we were getting to spots. Middies. Getting to the rim. If that’s what they’re going to give us, we should take it and shoot it at a high percentage. Then when we do get open looks, take them and take them confidently.”

The Celtics still made 14 of their triples, which meant that the Raptors — despite taking 47 3-pointers of their own — only finished plus-four in makes.

“We can play different ways, as you’ve seen, and so we just have to continue to do that, but we got to the free-throw line, we got 39 layups, and we kept them off the free-throw line, and we kept them off the glass,” Mazzulla said. “So all those things kind of add up.”

Jaylen Brown worked the refs (and it worked)

In three separate answers after Wednesday’s loss to the Nuggets, Jaylen Brown made a point to abundantly clear that he felt he didn’t get the requisite foul calls.

On Friday, Brown went to the free-throw line 13 times and made 12 of them en route to a 25-point performance.

Brown conceded on Friday that his performance against the Nuggets “wasn’t my best.”

“I’ve just got to keep my head on straight,” he said. “Don’t let it affect my physicality or the way I play. Don’t let it cloud my vision, thinking about the refs, not thinking about making the right play. So I’ve just got to stay poised.”

The Raptors made a concerted effort to get the ball out of Brown’s hands, but Brown appeared happy enough to let others do the heavy lifting — he took 15 shots and dished out seven assists. He was a little sloppy with four turnovers, but his willingness to get off the ball when the game calls for it has been one of his better qualities this season.

“I thought he made great reads,” Joe Mazzulla said. “[…] He had seven assists, and he had some potential assists too, but at the end of day, he’s just got to continue to make the right read vs. the 2-on-1, which he takes pride in, and he does it consistently.”

Brown is being more open

Before the game, Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic noted that Brown’s left hand is no longer a weakness like it used to be.

“He’s lying,” Brown quipped after the game. “He’s lying. Don’t listen to him.”

But Brown’s left hand is significantly better, and when pressed by a reporter, Brown said his previous issues may have been related to the health of his left wrist, which has given him fits throughout his career. Brown said he went through a number of procedures since 2021, including stem cell procedures to get healthy.

“Right now, it’s still fine,” Brown said. “That could change. But I have worked on it a lot. My health status is what I focus on most.”

“None of you have ever asked me about it, to be honest,” Brown said simply.

He went on, however, to acknowledge that he is a lot more honest and open this year.

“It’s the age of truth, 2026,” he said. “The Year of the Horse is on its way. It’s a year where truth will emerge.”

Anfernee Simons might be overqualified

Simons scored 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting, marking the seventh straight game —and the 10th game in his last 11 — that he has scored in double figures. After a relatively brief learning curve, he now appears very comfortable in his new role.

“I think he’s a better basketball player in a matter of a few months,” Brown said. “He competes on the defensive end. He understands the game a little bit better as well, like how to play winning basketball.

“And he’s a really talented player. He’s probably more talented than the role he’s in right now. But he comes out, he has the right mindset, he contributes to winning every single night, which I respect the hell out of.”

With Simons, the Celtics now have four players including Brown, Pritchard and Derrick White who are all capable of being high-usage ball-handlers in various stints, and all four can score in a variety of ways from all three levels.

On Friday, Simons tossed in three 3-pointers in addition to a tough finish in transition and a one-handed push after exploding out of the corner around a screen.

The Celtics have found a lot of creative ways to use Simons, and while there’s certainly a strong argument to made in favor of finding a big at the trade deadline, the Celtics have proven themselves highly adept at developing bigs on bargain contracts into competent contributors, and it isn’t easy to find players who can make baskets like this.