Celtics guard Payton Pritchard had to leave Wednesday’s game with a right eye abrasion that affected his vision, but the condition cleared up in time for him to play Friday night at Charlotte, writes Souichi Terada of MassLive. Pritchard has only missed five games over the past three seasons, and he’s thankful that he didn’t have to add to that total.

“It probably hurt,” Pritchard said (YouTube link). “I just couldn’t see, so my vision was very like, I don’t know how to explain it, but couldn’t track the rim when it happened and stuff. So I knew I had a problem and I had to come out. It just wasn’t coming back. Thankfully, it came back.”

Pritchard was listed on the injury report earlier this week with a right shoulder contusion, but he said he feels fine and it’s part of the wear and tear of an NBA season. He also discussed his slow start and said the Celtics should continue to improve as the season wears on.

“I don’t think we’ve hit peak form at all,” Pritchard said. “We’re record-wise solid, but we’re just sitting the surface.”

There’s more from Boston:

• Jayson Tatum sat out Wednesday’s game at Milwaukee, and occasional nights off figure to be a regular occurrence after he missed most of last season while recovering from an Achilles tear, Terada adds. Tatum, who scored 34 points Friday night, said he’s feeling closer to how he did before the injury. “I’m getting there,” he said. “How I felt before I got hurt — I felt really, really good. I don’t feel like too far. I’ve still only played less than 40 games since I’ve been back. Still in the ‘rehab phase’ of return-to-play. I still got a little ways to go to get back to feeling the best I’ve ever felt. We’re going to get there, though.”
• In a subscriber-only piece, Christopher L. Gasper of The Boston Globe imagines an alternate reality where the Bucks accepted the Celtics’ offer for Giannis Antetokounmpo and the feud involving Jaylen Brown and Tatum could have been avoided. Gasper believes Brown would have accepted being moved for a star like Antetokounmpo, and he could have been the centerpiece on a rebuilding Milwaukee team that had no chance to battle Boston for the conference title. Instead, Brown was shipped to the Sixers, and he and Tatum will have their first regular season clash Tuesday night in Philadelphia.
• In a mailbag column (subscription required), Terada considers that possibility that Paul George could decline his $56.6MM player option next summer and sign a short extension at a smaller annual salary. Terada notes that staying in Boston provides George with a solid chance to win a title before he retires.