Payton Pritchard Did Some Pregame Shooting Wednesday Night, 5 Days After Spraining MCL

BOSTON (CBS) -- Payton Pritchard remains sidelined with a right MCL sprain that he suffered last Friday. But on Wednesday, just five days after the injury, the Celtics guard was putting up some shots on the floor.

Pritchard did some light shooting ahead of Boston's loss to the Spurs in San Antonio on Wednesday night. As you can see, he doesn't have much lift at the moment, but it's a fairly promising sign that he's out there doing something.

Celtics president of basketball ops. Danny Ainge said Thursday morning that Pritchard is getting better, but still a few weeks away from doing any team-oriented activities.

"Yeah, he was out shooting around before the game last night and moving OK. But he's probably at least a week away before he gets back on the court with the team in a structured environment. So I'm not sure when he'll be back playing, but he's making good strides," Ainge told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich. "We're very fortunate. That was a little bit of a scary episode and we can use him."

The injury did not look good when it occurred, with Jaylen Brown falling into the rookie's knee during a loss to the 76ers, but it appears Pritchard escaped a serious injury. The Celtics announced the following day that it was an MCL sprain, and that Pritchard wasn't expected to return to on-court activities for approximately two weeks. It will be a little while before he does any running or team drills, but it's nice to see Pritchard putting up some shots.

The 26th overall pick in November's draft, Pritchard exceeded every expectation over his 14 NBA games. He was a critical piece to Boston's early season success, averaging 7.7 points off 48 percent shooting in 21 minutes per game off the bench.

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