Cornet, Pritchard steps up in Brown’s absence against Hornets originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Celtics won all seven games with Luke Kornet in the starting lineup last season. They extended that winning streak Saturday in Charlotte.
Kornet started in place of Jaylen Brown, who was ruled out with a left hip flexor strain. Boston went with a double-major lineup of Kornet and veteran Al Horford on the second night of their back-to-back against the Hornets.
As he has done many times for the C’s, Kornet rose to the occasion. He played a key role on both ends, collecting a season-high 19 points with four rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and a steal.
“Yeah, he’s great,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said of Kornet after the 113-103 win. “He gets a lot of things that go unnoticed. One of the things they don’t map out is blocks so someone else can get the rebound. So he does a great job of keeping his guy off the glass so someone else can get it . .
I just thought his physicality against their switching allowed us to get easy looks. Just a great presence around the rim.”
Also stepping up for the C’s was Payton Pritchard. He tallied 22 points on 6-of-12 shooting from 3-point range to help make up for Brown’s absence.
“Payton was great tonight,” Kornet told NBC Sports Boston’s Kayla Burton during his postgame interview. “We can always count on him and his energy, especially in these little back-to-backs like that. When everybody just has the same goal and the same mission and we hold each other to that, we’re a great team.”
As great as Kornet and Pritchard were in Saturday’s win, the Celtics will hope to have Brown back in the starting lineup when they visit the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. Brown is said to be set to undergo a second MRI on his left hip flexor, which he says has been bothering him for two and a half weeks. Mazzulla told reporters before Saturday’s game that Brown is considered day-to-day with the injury.
Tip-off for Monday’s game in Atlanta is scheduled for 7:45 pm ET.
