The Bucks held a comfortable lead over the Celtics throughout the first half of their Sunday afternoon matchup at Fiserv Forum.
But another strong outing by Payton Pritchard ensured “comfortable” did not become insurmountable.
Boston’s bench scoring dynamo recorded 17 of his 18 points in the first half to keep the Celtics within striking distance of the hot-shooting Bucks. Milwaukee eventually cracked, and Boston overcame a 17-point deficit to win 113-107.
During a 9 1/2-minute stretch from late in the first quarter to midway through the second, Pritchard accounted for five of the Celtics’ seven made field goals.
He went 5-for-6, all from 3-point range, with his only miss coming on a 48-foot heave at the first-quarter buzzer. (Bucks coach Doc Rivers, whose team was burned by a Pritchard buzzer-beater earlier in the season, doubled him on the play.) His Celtics teammates went a combined 2-for-11 during that span, but Boston came out of it trailing by just nine points.
Performances like that have become commonplace for Pritchard, who’s off to the best start of his career in his fifth NBA season. The energetic 26-year-old is on pace to shatter his career highs in every scoring and shooting category while emerging as the early front-runner for Sixth Man of the Year.
“Payton has been excellent this year,” Jaylen Brown told reporters after Sunday’s win. “I think he’s played as good as anybody out there, and the way he’s been shooting the ball and the way he’s been making plays for our team has been incredible. And his growth has been great to watch.”
Though it would take an injury to Derrick White or Jrue Holiday to get him into the starting lineup, Pritchard has been one of the most important contributors to Boston’s 9-2 start. He’s scored 15 or more points in nine of the Celtics’ 11 games — a mark he reached in just 22% of his 82 appearances last season — and has become a more efficient 3-point shooter despite a drastic uptick in attempts.
Pritchard’s 9.1 attempted 3-pointers per game (eighth-most in the NBA) is nearly double his single-season career high of 4.7, yet he’s hitting them at a 43.0% clip, way up from his 38.5% average last season. He’s also improved his field-goal percentage on 2-pointers (66.7%, up from 58.3% in 2023-24), thanks in part to a craftier repertoire of finishing moves.
His 68.1% true shooting percentage, which factors in twos, threes and free throws, is nearly 10 percentage points higher than his career average. Head coach Joe Mazzulla has trusted him with larger workloads, too, including using him as part of Boston’s closing lineup in last Friday’s overtime win over Brooklyn while Brown sat out with a hip injury.
Pritchard scored six of the Celtics’ 14 overtime points in that game on a midrange jumper and four free throws.
“I mean, it’s funny to say this, but he’s actually a really good three-level scorer,” Mazzulla said afterward. “He can shoot threes, he can shoot pull-up twos and he can create just enough space to get layups off. So he’s a three-level scorer. But really, it’s all the stuff. His ball pressure changes the game for us, so he’s just a really good, well-rounded basketball player. Competitive, nasty.”
No NBA reserve has scored more points this season than Pritchard’s 182, and only Golden State’s Jonathan Kumiga and Buddy Hield are averaging more points per game as non-starters.
As of Monday, most prominent sportsbooks had Pritchard pegged as the NBA Sixth Man of the Year favorite. DraftKings gave him the shortest award odds at +250, followed by Hield (+600) and Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin (+600).
“He’s a big-time player,” Brown told reporters Sunday. “Any other team, I think Payton is a guy that could contribute heavily offensively just because of his ability to make plays. So for him to be able to weather the storm and be ready when his name is called on this team is big for us.”
