With Jaylen Brown out, Payton Pritchard powers Celtics past red-hot Hawks

Zack Cox, Boston Herald on Mar 27, 2026

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BOSTON — What’s been true all season was true again Friday night at TD Garden: When Jaylen Brown sits, the Celtics don’t blink.

Boston handled one of the NBA’s hottest teams without its leading scorer, defeating the Hawks 109-102 while Brown (Achilles tendonitis) watched from the bench in street clothes.

The Celtics improved to 49-24, extending their one-game lead over the New York Knicks for second place in the Eastern Conference with nine games remaining. They’re 7-1 this season in games Brown has missed.

Payton Pritchard poured in 36 points on 13-of-23 shooting (6-for-11 from 3-point range) to lead Boston back from a 16-point first-quarter deficit. Jayson Tatum continued to struggle as a shooter (8-for-24; 2-for-8) but finished with 26 points, 12 rebounds and five assists in his first game without his longtime co-star this season.

Tatum’s 37 minutes were the most he’s played since returning from Achilles surgery on March 6.

The Celtics’ late-game offense looked disjointed without Brown — they did not make a field goal in the final six-plus minutes of regulation — but strong offensive rebounding in the final minutes helped them hold on against a Hawks team that had 14 of its previous 15 games.

Boston finished with a 52-35 edge on the glass and won despite posting one of its worst turnover differentials of the season (16-4).

Up next for Joe Mazzulla’s squad is a visit to the similarly scorching Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, followed by a rematch with the Hawks in Atlanta on Monday. Brown’s status for those games is unclear; Mazzulla called him “day to day” during his pregame news conference.

The Hawks, who came in ranked sixth in the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage and seventh in made threes per game, started 5-for-7 from beyond the arc. The Celtics were far less efficient, misfiring on six of their first seven 3-pointers amid a 4-for-15 start. They also were whistled for two push-off fouls — one by Tatum, one by Pritchard — as they fell into a 25-9 hole.

Mazzulla called a timeout eight minutes in, and his team came out of the stoppage reenergized. Boston closed the first quarter with a 17-4 run, getting quality minutes from its bench quartet of Pritchard, Luka Garza, Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walsh.

Walsh, who’s been the odd man out of the Celtics’ wing rotation since Tatum’s return, saw his first action since March 12 in Brown’s absence.

Pritchard had seven points and two assists in the final 2:02 of the first quarter, capping it with a buzzer-beating floater in traffic that cut Atlanta’s lead to 29-26. He added another 12 points in the second quarter, including a 3-pointer that pulled Boston even at 40-40 with 7:19 to play in the half.

The sixth man’s uber-efficient first-half shooting (8-for-11; 3-for-3 from deep) helped stabilize the Celtics’ offense after its rocky start.

Consecutive threes by Sam Hauser and Scheierman put Boston ahead 46-42. But Atlanta capitalized on a run of Celtics turnovers to take a 60-55 advantage into halftime.

Tatum made two of his first three field goals but missed his next eight, continuing a trend that’s persisted since his March 6 season debut. The perennial All-NBA wing has endured prolonged cold spells in most of his 10 appearances. Friday’s drought — which Tatum snapped with an and-one layup early in the third quarter — was the fifth time he’d missed at least five consecutive shots.

That issue has cropped up even in Tatum’s best outings, like Wednesday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, during which he made just one of his final eight attempts. He entered Friday shooting well below his career average both from the field (39.1%) and from three (30.9%).

Tatum sparked the Celtics’ offense after halftime with two quick makes, but Pritchard again carried it. Triples on three straight possessions by Hauser, Pritchard and Pritchard again erased an eight-point Hawks lead, and Pritchard added another two trips later. He also fed Garza for a 3-pointer that put the Celtics ahead 78-72, their largest lead of the game to that point.

Pritchard later put back a missed Tatum layup to reach the 30-point mark with more than a full quarter remaining. Tatum closed out the third with a late-clock midrange stepback over Jonathan Kuminga, and the Celtics carried an 87-82 lead into the fourth.

Boston opened the final quarter with a 10-4 run — including two Tatum buckets, a slick pump-fake layup by Garza and an alley-oop from Tatum to Neemias Queta — to stretch their lead to double digits. A Tatum 3-pointer made it 100-89 with 6:19 to play. The Hawks got to within four with 3:52 remaining but couldn’t complete the comeback.

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