REPORT: Celtics are re-signing player back Jayson Tatum to a three-year deal worth $31 million……….
It’s no coincidence that amid the Celtics’ best stretch of basketball this season, Payton Pritchard is playing the best basketball of his career.
Over the course of Boston’s 20-3 stretch, Pritchard has been one of the team’s most reliable contributors – especially in March, and even more so in the past week. On Monday, it was announced that he was one of five nominees for East Player of the Week, along with New York’s Jalen Brunson, Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard, Indiana’s Pascal Siakam, and the winner – Pritchard’s backcourt mate, Derrick White.
Following Monday night’s 15-point effort in Atlanta, Pritchard has now scored at least 14 points in six straight contests. He’s scored in double digits in 11 out of 14 games this month, including nine of the last 10.
But that’s not all. Boston’s backup point guard is also shooting the ball at an elite clip, assisting at one of the highest rates in the league, and his assist-to-turnover ratio has been extraordinary.
In Boston’s last five games, Pritchard scored the third-most points on the team behind Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. During that stretch, he has averaged 18.4 points per game while shooting 53.8 percent from the field, including 45.9 percent from 3-point range.
In the last six games, Pritchard handed out 46 assists, while committing only five turnovers. The only two players who dished out more during that same stretch were Atlanta’s Dejounte Murray (57 assists) and LA’s James Harden (47 assists); though Murray had more than three times as many turnovers (16) as Pritchard, and Harden had twice as many (10).
Pritchard now has the sixth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the NBA at 4.3/1 and his miscues have been nearly non-existent over the last few games, as you can see below.
