Celtics’ Payton Pritchard reveals ‘must-win’ mindset for Game 2 vs. Knicks

The Boston Celtics will play their biggest game of the season in just over five hours. Boston lost Game 1 in overtime after a late collapse. Celtics guard and 2024-25 Sixth Man of the Year winner, Payton Pritchard, says that Game 2 against the Knicks at TD Garden is a “must-win.”

“We have to take care of homecourt tonight,” Pritchard told the media. “We’ll come out with a lot of energy, especially after watching the Cleveland/Pacers game. It’s a full 48-minute fight tonight. We let off the throttle last game up 20 and let it slip. So we can’t let that happen.”

Pritchard mentioned the Cavs/Pacers Game 2 on Tuesday night. The Cavaliers controlled that game from the beginning, and the Pacers, just as the Knicks did in Game 1 at Boston, came back and won late. Tyrese Haliburton nailed a game-winner with 1 second left to put the Pacers up 2-0 heading back to Indiana.

The Cleveland Cavaliers owned the top record in the Eastern Conference and were a dominant team all year long. Seeing them fall 2-0 and losing two straight home games was not expected. This proves that anything can happen in these playoffs, especially in the second round, with the best of the best going at it.

Pritchard, as well as Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the rest of the Celtics, understand that the Knicks are capable of stealing Game 2, which would put Boston in a bad spot. We have seen the Celtics storm back from down 3-0 in the series against the Miami Heat, just two seasons ago. However, this Celtics team is too talented to put themselves in that position again. Based on everything we have seen on this team from the last two seasons, we expect they will respond in a big way.

The Celtics are getting Kristaps Porzingis back after he left Game 1 with an illness. Sam Hauser is listed as Doubtful with an ankle sprain, and he should miss tonight’s action.

Pritchard and the Celtics aim to take care of business in Game 2 and head to New York tied at 1-1.