{"id":686986,"date":"2026-03-30T00:05:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/686986\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T00:05:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:05:23","slug":"joe-mazzulla-names-celtics-x-factor-for-nba-playoffs-its-not-jaylen-brown-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/686986\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Mazzulla names Celtics’ X Factor for NBA Playoffs, it’s not Jaylen Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are only eight more games remaining in what could only be described as an amazing season for the Boston Celtics<\/a>. Coach Joe Mazzulla and Jaylen Brown have helped the squad remain competitive despite their perceived lack of depth. Jayson Tatum is constantly reinventing himself when it comes to adapting to his injury woes. However, this squad will rely more on someone outside of those three big names in the NBA Playoffs\u00a0\u2014 Payton Pritchard.<\/p>\n

Mazzulla’s Celtics need their spark plug in the clutch for NBA Playoffs<\/p>\n

When the NBA Playoffs roll around, teams have a goal of forcing their opponents to scheme out their stars. Obviously, Tatum and Brown already know how they could still produce big numbers as evidenced by past NBA Playoffs. They even won the Larry O’Brien trophy with that. But, things will be different for the Celtics this year<\/a>. Coach Mazzulla no longer have a spread of talent which taunts people just off the scouting report. So, he has been slowly integrating Pritchard to be their leader in crunch time.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, it has been working out and Pritchard’s heroics even led them past the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>, via Jay King of The Athletic.<\/a><\/p>\n

“They were going out in transition on that play. And that could have changed the game a little bit. And he goes in and crashes, and it was just a big-time play,” the Celtics head coach said.<\/p>\n

Pritchard was flying against a tough defensive team like the Hawks. He ended up notching 36 points while knocking down 56.5% of his shots from the field. Not to mention, he was also the breathing offensive engine that the Celtics needed off the bench in a game that Brown did not play. He dropped four assists and also grabbed seven rebounds to close out possessions well.<\/p>\n

He understood that the Celtics need more big playmakers when the NBA Playoffs approach. So, he took up the challenge and detailed how much Coach Mazzulla’s system developed his instincts.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just winning basketball. I want to win, so obviously, you want to make a play. You see somebody shoot the ball, and I\u2019m like, I see it coming off the rim, and I\u2019m like, I\u2019m just fighting, try to get it, get an extra possession. Those little things like that can change the game and win a game. So, yeah, it\u2019s just about the want and competitive spirit,” Pritchard declared.<\/p>\n

The NBA Playoffs loom and the Celtics have the scariest killers on their team who might just deliver a 19th banner.<\/p>\n

More Celtics News:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are only eight more games remaining in what could only be described as an amazing season for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-686986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116315209369506971","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}