The Boston Celtics are on cruise control in their title defense; even though they were without Jayson Tatum for their Thursday night matchup against the Detroit Pistons, the Celtics came out on top convincingly, taking a 123-99 victory thanks in large part to yet another stellar outing from Payton Pritchard off the bench.
Pritchard continues to be one of the best super-subs in today's NBA; he tallied 27 points and 10 assists on Thursday night while shooting 10-20 from the field and 7-15 from beyond the arc. Without Pritchard, the Celtics would be a worse team, and he has evolved from an energy and hustle guy who can occasionally turn a game on its head with his three-point shooting to being one of the best sixth men in the entire league.
Nonetheless, while the Celtics guard acknowledged how big of an honor winning the Sixth Man of the Year award would be, he knows that this is not something that would make or break his season.
“It’s not something I really think about. If I'm fortunate to win, I guess [it's] a testament to the hard work I put in. It just means that I've helped my team, coming off the bench and doing my job at a high level. It's not something, like, if I don't win or win, it's not make or break for me. I'm gonna continue with what I'm doing. But yeah, it'd be an honor,” Pritchard said, via ClutchPoints Celtics beat reporter Daniel Donabedian.
This selfless mindset is what sets Pritchard apart and what has made him quite the major piece for the Celtics, a team that continues to be as good as ever as they improved to 20-5 on the year following their demolition of the Pistons.
Payton Pritchard is a true game-changer for the Celtics
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As long as Derrick White and Jrue Holiday are on the team, there is no way that Payton Pritchard will be a consistent starter for the Celtics. Even then, Pritchard is a true game-changer for Boston. Once he enters the court, the Celtics play with more pace, more confidence, and Pritchard's energy is very contagious.
Whenever the Celtics need to turn the momentum of the game, they can always rely on Pritchard to do something — make a three, defend well, or come up with huge hustle plays — to swing the game back in their favor. And he has been very consistent this year and he will be a deserving winner of the 6MOTY if he keeps up this level of production.
