BOSTON — The Celtics were without three rotation players on Monday night against the Heat, leaving Payton Pritchard as the sole proven scorer off the Celtics bench. The Heat knew he was the guy that had to be stopped with the second unit but came up woefully short on that front. Pritchard erupted for 25 points off the bench in the Celtics’ 108-89 blowout win, shooting 10-of-17 from the field and 5-of-12 from 3-point range.
It was the fourth consecutive game that Pritchard has scored 20 points or more, the first time he’s done that in his five NBA seasons. After the victory, Joe Mazzulla talked about what’s led to Pritchard remaining a consistent weapon despite other teams focusing on him more.
“He’s continued to grow and be patient,” Mazzulla said. “Again, the hardest thing for young guys is to make it through their first contract when there’s a lot of unknowns. You look at his first year, he played a lot, then Kemba came back and he didn’t play and it seems like his first couple years, every year, there were just wings ahead of him. He just continued to work. That’s hard to do for a young guy.
“And I think the second piece is that his teammates understand that we need to have a different identity. We need to go to different stuff, and he takes a ton of pressure off the other guys. So I think it’s twofold, right? It’s what he’s done, and it’s the team empowering him to do that, because he’s special.”
Pritchard is already the frontrunner in the NBA for 6th man of the Year through 21 games but he’s receiving a new level of appreciation for his expanded contributors. Jaylen Brown has been one of his biggest advocates since his rookie year but he’s enjoyed how Pritchard has become someone Boston can play through offensively.
“He’s put in the work to garner people’s respect,” Brown said. “Payton, he’s a gym rat. He’s always in the gym working on his game. He’s always been like that. He’s a smart player and he’s been playing incredibly well in his role. So he’s earned the respect to be able to do other things because of how good he’s been all season long in his role. I encourage it.
“On the court, when’s got it going, I take my butt to the corner and Payton’s running the show. You gotta have that ability throughout the year to have a group like that know on any given night, you can be the first option and on any given night, you can be the fifth options, depending on who’s doing well on our team. We have a lot of guys that can score the ball.”
Pritchard is averaging a career-high 16.4 points per game and is the only other Celtic besides Jayson Tatum to appear in all 21 games through Boston’s 17-4 start to the season.
