Josh Richardson rediscovers his range

Everything considered, from his time in health and safety protocol to the basic process of blending with a new team, Josh Richardson is having an impact at both ends of the floor for the Celtics.

It helps that the lean wing player is having a career season from 3-point range, save for his rookie year in Miami, when Richardson shot .462 on far fewer attempts.

But he’s shooting .406 from downtown as a Celtic, as opposed to .330 last season with Dallas and .341 the season before in Philadelphia. That said, he’s also averaging his fewest 3-point attempts since that rookie season.

But upon bringing in Richardson last summer, Brad Stevens said the swingman was a better shooter than he had shown in recent seasons.

“If you look at my numbers before the last two seasons, it’s high 30s every year and I had a 40% in there, so. I mean averages are a thing so, you have a couple of down seasons, your whole paper looks off,” said Richardson. “But I think I’m a guy that people have to guard on the 3-point line, and I’m going to keep trying to space the court for my teammates.”

Asked why he was shooting so well after two off-seasons, Richardson said, “I don’t know. Just being able to play how I play. I think that’s been a big boost for me this year.”

Asked to grade his season, Richardson said, “I’d probably give it a B-minus – like a B, B-minus.

“Just hopefully showing more consistency. Hopefully being able to be healthy in the second half of the season more, being more available. And just still working on being a leader on this team; being vocal, not shying away from when things need to be said. I think that’ll be a good step for me.”

Pritchard returns, Smart a scratch

Marcus Smart, his bruised right thigh still hurting after suffering the injury in the third quarter of Monday’s win over the Pacers, wasn’t on the floor for the rematch Wednesday night.

And just like that, Payton Pritchard returned to the lineup after missing the previous four games in health and safety protocol.

“He’s OK. He’s been down. He’s just getting his wind back up,” Ime Udoka said of Pritchard. “Just like everybody, it affects people differently. But he’s a guy that I’m sure wasn’t just sitting still, doing nothing. I’m sure he’ll be ready to roll and excited to come back for us. We’re glad to have him.”

And with Smart out for at least one game, a lot of players appearance destined to be running the offense, including Pritchard.

“Obviously Dennis (Schroder) has been in that role all year when Jaylen (Brown) or Jayson (Tatum) was out or Marcus just missed a game or two,” said Udoka. “So obviously we feel like we have another guy that’s basically a sixth starter. Payton coming back is obviously welcomed as far as that, and then what you saw in the last game was Josh Richardson playing some point guard toward the end defensively as well as handling the ball, initiating offense. And you always have Jayson and Jaylen that are touching the ball a ton and guys can play off them.”

Road losing streak

The Celtics landed in Indianapolis on the cusp of a six-game road losing streak, with a Dec. 4 win in Portland the last time they had success in another arena.

“I mean, there’s been a variety of ways we’ve done it and we’ve played well and lost and played poorly as well, so finishing the deal, which is what we were looking forward to the second half of the season, and that’s been up and down all year,” Udoka said of what truly bothers him, and that it has little to do with home or road losses.

“So you talk about the New York game, one of our last road games, was obviously a tale of two halves. We played well enough to win and didn’t close the game, so it’s been a variety of ways,” he said. “I don’t want to attribute anything specific to the road losing streak, but just our overall improvement and consistency is what we’re trying to see, whether it’s at home or on the road.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3tjoMR3