Payton Pritchard did it again.
The Celtics point guard drilled a shot from beyond halfcourt to beat the buzzer and send TD Garden into rapture as the Celtics went into halftime with a 67-46 lead over the Mavericks on Monday night.
Pritchard chucked up the long-distance shot with 0.8 left on the clock in the first half to solidify the Celtics’ stranglehold in Game 5 of the NBA Finals as they look to wrap up the franchises’ record 18th championship.
Jayson Tatum immediately jumped into Pritchard for a chest bump after the shot dropped and the entire Celtics bench came running over to the Boston guard before they headed to the locker room amped up.
The highlight reel shot elicited a patented “BANG!” out of ESPN broadcaster Mike Breen, who was doing play-by-play for the Finals contest on ABC.
“Pritchard at the buzzer with a 3-pointer. He’s done it again,” Breen said on the broadcast.
Pritchard also knocked down a long buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter in Game 2.
Pritchard, 28, became the first player in the NBA to hit two 30-foot buzzer-beaters in NBA Finals history, according to Stathead.
His first buzzer-beater came when he was sent into the game with 3.3 seconds left in the third quarter of Game 2 to hit a desperation 3-pointer.
He hit the 34-foot shot from the Finals logo – a similar situation to what played out just before halftime on Monday night – and Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla called it the play of the game during the second game of the series.
“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,” Mazzulla said, per the Associated Press. “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. He takes pride in taking that, and that’s winning basketball.”
