BOSTON — Nearly every game this season, Payton Pritchard has checked in at the six-minute mark of the first quarter.
The jolt that he provided the Celtics midway through the opening period salvaged plenty slow starts, and massively propelled his Sixth Man of the Year candidacy.
But in the opening game of the NBA playoffs against the Orlando Magic, Pritchard wasn’t in the initial group of Celtics players to check into the game off the bench — Al Horford, Luke Kornet, and Sam Hauser all subbed in, but Pritchard sat idly by.