Payton Pritchard, Celtics bench keeps them undefeated in preseason in win over Raptors: 9 takeaways

Pritchard is starting the first year of a $30 million deal that averages $7.5 million per year, and there’s a real chance that his contract could look like one of the best in the NBA over the next few years.

The Celtics, who were without any of the top six players in their rotation on Sunday, built a big lead in the first half and held on late to claim a 115-111 win over the Raptors, which kept them undefeated in the preseason.

Here are the takeaways.

1. At this point, are the Celtics even disadvantaged when they are short-handed, if being short-handed means Payton Pritchard has a green light?

Pritchard flirted with a triple-double in just 23 minutes on Sunday, scoring 19 points (7-for-13) while dishing out nine assists and grabbing five rebounds. He made five 3-pointers as part of an opening unit that pushed the pace to devastating effect against a Raptors team that didn’t have several rotation players (R.J. Barrett, Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, Immanuel Quickley) but did have Scottie Barnes, Jakob Pöltl and Gradey Dick. The Celtics scored 41 points in the first quarter and led by as many as 34 before two big quarters in the second half by the Raptors reserves trimmed the deficit all the way down to four when the buzzer sounded.

Pritchard is starting the first year of a $30 million deal that averages $7.5 per year, and there’s a real chance that his contract could look like one of the best in the NBA over the next few years.

He’s a valuable player to have off the bench, and (from an entertainment perspective) very few people seem to enjoy their chosen vocations more than Pritchard when his primary role is to score.

2. We haven’t always been easy on Jordan Walsh over the last few months, but his last two games were genuinely eye-opening.

On Saturday, Walsh buried three triples with much-improved shooting form. He only made one of his four attempts on Sunday, but he finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The game looks significantly slower for Walsh after a shaky Summer League. On one play in the first half after burying his lone triple, he pump-faked Chris Boucher into the air and took two dribbles into the paint. When Boucher recovered, Walsh rocked back and exploded forward again past Boucher, who was completely shaken off of him. Walsh then drove past Dmytro Skapintsev (who may or may not have been setting the seal-screen that Daniel Theis popularized before the NBA outlawed it) and into contact with Pöltl at the rim for a layup.

It was a high-level play – a bright flash of from a 20-year-old who is learning how to read the game at the NBA level.

3. Neemias Queta probably won’t get a lot of minutes this season (again), but his defensive positioning looks better than last year, which cleans up an important facet of his game.

Meanwhile, his offense remains a nice element that the Celtics don’t really have elsewhere: A pure pick-and-roll big man who can dive to the rim for enormous dunks, and a major lob target around the rim. Queta also pulled down 15 rebounds (six offensive) in his 21 minutes of action.

4. Lonnie Walker is a good basketball player. He scored 20 points and made four 3-pointers during the Celtics’ early onslaught, but he has a lot more to his offensive game as well – high-level athleticism, great change of pace and direction with the ball in his hands, and excellent touch around the rim. Walker dropped in a pair of floaters on Sunday, including one that hit high on the backboard and fell through, and another that prompted the Celtics’ (by our count) third “too small” celebration of the preseason (the first two were Jaylen Brown).

This was pretty impressive too.

Adding Walker to the roster would add to a luxury tax bill that

more than $65 million. Tacking on more just to bring in an overqualified player to fill a role somewhere between 10 and 14 in a rotation might be a tough sell for owners given everything else going on around the team.

But from a basketball perspective, Walker could be a really nice addition. Worst-case scenario, his preseason has inspired some hand-wringing about how the defending champions were able to add him for cheap. Maybe that will help him find a spot, even if the Celtics don’t bring him on.

5. Baylor Scheierman is … still yet to find it. The rookie shot 0-for-6 from the floor and 0-for-5 from behind the arc on Sunday. He was always unlikely to make an impact on this year’s team, and preseason appears to have confirmed that he’s destined for Maine this season (which can be a great place to develop – just ask the aforementioned Walsh).

6. Anton Watson got 12 minutes of action in the fourth quarter, which meant he was on the floor for much of the Raptors’ rally and finished -18. Watson struggled a bit – he missed both of his 3-point attempts, he stepped out of bounds spotting up almost immediately after entering the game, he tried to throw an immediately doomed pass into traffic that his former Celtics Summer League teammate Jahmi’us Ramsey picked off with ease.

Watson did finish off a nifty layup and a big dunk operating out of the pick-and-roll. Still, Celtics rookies had a rough Sunday.

7. Drew Peterson had a nice evening – 23 points, which he generated in a wide variety of ways. He finished 3-for-5 from 3-point range, but more interestingly (the Celtics have a ton of 3-point shooting), he was aggressive getting into the paint as a driver, and he generated 10 trips to the free-throw line (8-for-10).

8. Al Horford is slated to make his preseason debut against the Raptors on Tuesday in the preseason finale. 9. The Celtics and Raptors tip off at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in Toronto. After that game, fans will need to be patient for a week, but the wait will be worth it: The Celtics take on the new-look (and already highly dramatic) Knicks on ring night in the season opener.