Keys to the Game: Celtics 132, Wizards 122

As Joe Mazzulla has emphasized to his team all season long, closing out quarters with strong play is critical to Boston’s long-term success. The Celtics made him proud in that respect Sunday afternoon.

Boston, playing without its top six players for the second straight game to end the season, was knotted up in a tie ballgame with less than two and a half minutes left in the first half. But by the time the C’s went to the locker room, they had burst ahead by 10 points to set the tone for the remainder of the contest.

Payton Pritchard was not only at the center of the game-changing run; he was the game-changing run. Pritchard scored all 14 of Boston’s points over the final 2:19 of the first half to give him 22 points in the game – seven more than any other player had notched to that point.

The blooming point guard, who has now logged consecutive double-doubles heading into the postseason of at least 30 points and 11 assists, canned all five of his shots during this stretch of action. Four of them were from long distance, including back-to-back triples to start the run, and back-to-back triples to end the run. The final shot was drilled from 26 feet out and with 3.6 seconds left on the first-half clock, leaving Pritchard to walk off the court with a smug look on his face as if to say, “This is what I do.”

That was the beginning of the end of Washington. The Celtics dominated the second half, pulling ahead by as many as 24 points before completing a 132-122 win.

In a Keys to the Game first, we’re handing out not one, but two Key Player awards tonight. The first goes to Payton Pritchard, and the second goes to Neemias Queta.

Pritchard continued his hot streak Sunday afternoon by piling up a career-high 38 points to go along with 12 assists and nine rebounds. He led the game in all three categories, all while setting a new season high with nearly 44 minutes of action. Pritchard somehow only committed two turnovers while playing that long, with the ball in his hands that much. A truly special performance that caps a truly special weekend, as Pritchard joined legends John Havlicek, Larry Bird and Bob Cousy as the only members of the organization to ever log back-to-back 30-point, 10-assist double-doubles.

Since Pritchard has been owning this slot of late, we figured we should share the love. And Queta is more than deserving of it.

Queta nearly logged a 20-point double-double Sunday afternoon despite playing less than 20 minutes. He finished with a career-high 19 points to go along with nine rebounds. He made eight of his 11 shot attempts and three of his four free throws. He also set a new career high in blocked shots with six, which doubled his previous career high, and which was two more than Washington’s entire team logged.

"We know exactly who we are on both sides of the ball, and also know we have the depth and the open-mindedness to adapt when necessary."

- Joe Mazzulla on the Celtics heading into the postseason