Joe Mazzulla: Payton Pritchard has had this in him his entire career

On Tuesday's edition of Zolak & Bertrand, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla discusses Payton Pritchard scoring 20+ points in each of the last 4 games.

Scott Zolak: 

I ask you every week about Payton Pritchard and the guy just seems to get better and better. I mean, it's four straight games off the bench with 20 plus points. And he's talking smack to Erik Spoelstra during the game. What's gotten into this kid, Joe? 

Joe Mazzulla: 

Listen, I mean, he's had it in him his entire career and we kind of talked about this last night. You know, you see guys in his position that get drafted to good teams and it's tough for them to kind of make it because there's a lot of uncertainty and, you know, he came into the league playing a lot. Then Kemba Walker came back, and the next few years were kind of up and down. He just continued to compete at a high, high level, continue to work, never wavered in his work ethic and his confidence. Now, you're seeing him just kind of grow into a complete player. You know, he can impact the game in so many different ways, offense and defense. We're blessed to have him. 

Scott Zolak: 

I have a question about playing time and how quick you are to let guys know, hey when you come to the gym be ready to go, you're going to get so many minutes tonight. Do you keep those guys in the dark to make sure everybody should be ready to go? 

Joe Mazzulla: 

Yeah, as dark as possible. They don't know until sometimes they hear their name called in. It's difficult, but it's a credit to them. And I think you rely one on your staff to prepare your guys every day and you rely on the guys to have a level of mental toughness and professionalism, and you know to me if you can create an environment where everyone comes in and knows that their preparation is important to winning and it could happen at anytime. There are so many different situations, whether it's, you know, Jaden Springer going in for the last five seconds of the game and almost getting a steal to Drew Peterson to guys having to step up last night. So, you know, it's a credit to the staff and it's a credit to the guys just kind of constantly being ready. But I think that's the environment in the locker room that you want.

Actually, it's called "Undefeated Cavalier or 90s Sitcoms Second Tier." Gotta make sure we get the name right before we continue.

Let's also give you a peek behind the curtain while we're at it. Toucher & Hardy is on weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on 98.5 the Sports Hub. After the show wraps at 10, Toucher, Hardy, Wallach, 12, Nick, and Beaton all adjourn to the conference room to plot out the next day's show.

Recently, Fred had to skedaddle early from our post-show planning sesh. He left us with this task: come up with a bit or game for tomorrow. We decided to take advantage of his absence to devise a game for Fred to play the next day.

Thus, the aforementioned game was born. With the Celtics hosting the 15-0 Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night at TD Garden, the green is on everyone's mind. Will the Cs hand the Cavs their first loss of the 2024-2025 season on the parquet?

Jon Wallach went deep into the Cleveland bench to pull names of lesser-known players. I dug into the world of Fred's most beloved form of entertainment--the sitcom--to find supporting actors with names that sound like they could be NBA players.

No such thing as "Too Many Cooks" here, with Hardy, Nick, and Beaton all pitching in on the production side to bring the bit to life on air and online. We really are like one big, happy, dysfunctional TV sitcom family, aren't we?

Listen to the segment at the 30:00 mark above, see if you can name the undefeated Cavs and 90s sitcoms semi-stars, then scroll down for some classic TV clips. Here's hoping by the time you see this, the Celtics will have ended Cleveland's win streak.

Darryl Bell played Ron Johnson Jr. on A Different World. He also played Big Brother X-Ray Vision in Spike Lee's School Daze.

Stoney Jackson had a ton of work in the '80s and '90s: Travis Filmore on 227, dancing in Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video, acting in The Jeffersons and the movie CB4.

The Brady Bunch was off the air by the '90s, but it inspired so many of that decade's sitcoms. And is there a more legendary second-tier character than Robbie Rist's Cousin Oliver?

T.C. Carson kept it smooth as as the secondary character Kyle Barker on the '90s Queen Latifah vehicle Living Single.

The king of all '90s sitcoms. And Steve Hytner's cameos as Jerry's comedy nemesis Kenny Bania were always worthwhile scenes.