Everyone has seen Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard’s half-court shot from Game 5 of the NBA Finals. While the shot did not win the Celtics the game, it gave the team a lot of momentum heading into the second half.
The 26-year-old also had a half-court shot in Game 2 of the Finals.
Pritchard admitted to not practicing the shot before the Finals. The guard believed he had deep enough range, so he didn’t feel a need to practice.
Celtics veteran Al Horford, however, offered Pritchard a piece of advice before the shot. When Pritchard was put into the game, he let Horford know he wanted the ball as time expired.
“(Pritchard) was in my ears letting me know,” Horford said at a charity event, per Celtics on CLNS. “Before the game (Horford and Pritchard) were talking about how many dribbles he could take, how many seconds and dribbles he could potentially take. We were talking about it and I was like ‘Well, just to be safe, don’t over dribble’ type thing.”
Luckily for Pritchard, he followed Horford’s advice and got the shot off before the clock ran out. Horford gave Pritchard credit for the shot also being a contested one against Luka Doncic.
“(Pritchard) did his thing but it was like one of those things as soon as he took that last dribble right before half-court,” Horford said. “It was contested, too, because if you look at it, Luka was flying in (and) contested him. He timed it right and it was pretty cool that it worked out for him.”
