Celtics guard Payton Pritchard has been the NBA's best bench player through the first quarter of the 2024-25 season, and now people outside of Boston are really starting to take notice.
This isn't a small sample anymore. It's not just a hot streak. It's a legitimate leap forward by a player who never stops working to improve his skill set.
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Pritchard scored 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting (5-of-12 from 3-point range) with five rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block in 33 minutes off the bench Monday night as the Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 108-89 at TD Garden.
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Pritchard has scored 20-plus points in four consecutive games. He's the first player in the league to do that off the bench this season.
Pritchard's play Monday night, and his improvement throughout the last couple seasons, has not been lost on Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra.
“I think the biggest thing with him is just confidence," Spoelstra said in his postgame press conference Monday. "They've definitely infused confidence in him. Joe (Mazzulla) has infused confidence in him, his teammates have. This is an example of not something that’s overnight. Everyone wants instant gratification.
"This guy’s been grinding and working year after year, and each year he’s gotten better. And then all of a sudden, he’s getting to this level where he’s in Sixth Man of the Year conversations. I think the skill set and the work ethic, that’s been there, and you just continue to get better, and all of a sudden people start to notice.”
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Pritchard is averaging a career-high 16.4 points per game and shooting a career-best 48.9 percent from the floor and 43.1 percent from 3-point range.
He's also receiving a career-high 28 minutes per game and taking full advantage of the opportunity, so much so that he's arguably the favorite to win the league's Sixth Man of the Year award.
The last Celtics player to win that trophy was veteran point guard Malcolm Brogdon in the 2022-23 season. And at this rate, Pritchard might soon join him.
