{"id":361983,"date":"2025-12-21T14:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T14:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/361983\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T14:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T14:56:08","slug":"payton-pritchard-explodes-for-big-scoring-night-in-peculiar-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/361983\/","title":{"rendered":"Payton Pritchard explodes for big scoring night in peculiar trend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"FCYHOVRZBJGV7LREBBNJPX5DZM\">It was clear <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/2025\/12\/payton-pritchard-is-the-celtics-name-to-know-player-of-the-game-in-saturdays-win-over-raptors.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/2025\/12\/payton-pritchard-is-the-celtics-name-to-know-player-of-the-game-in-saturdays-win-over-raptors.html\">Payton Pritchard<\/a> was on against the Raptors, and after every make, it was shaping up to be one of those nights. Pritchard exploded for 33 points in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/2025\/12\/4-takeaways-as-celtics-beat-raptors-as-intriguing-rookie-posts-career-night.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/2025\/12\/4-takeaways-as-celtics-beat-raptors-as-intriguing-rookie-posts-career-night.html\">Saturday\u2019s win in Toronto<\/a>, pacing a Celtics team that was without Jaylen Brown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"XSEZV4YVPFDDBODHRFZRD4TWTI\">It was just the latest massive scoring night for Pritchard that continued a peculiar trend. The C\u2019s guard has, at least early on, been at his best on the second game of a back-to-back. Players are usually tired, but some of Pritchard\u2019s best games this season have come when he played the prior night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"M7FV3ZQGXRFLHCHABATXJV24AA\">\u201cI feel like I had it going earlier in the game, honestly,\u201d Pritchard said, via the NBC Sports Boston broadcast. \u201cSometimes you gotta take what the defense gives you. I had some easy assists. So you loosen the defense up a little bit. I think I had maybe only one turnover or something, so getting off the ball. Hit the shots that I can. Then the third quarter happened and the defense kind of expands, opened up the floor a little bit, then you gotta hit those shots.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"YF4HYYIBXBCFJMHGELG6DGHBYI\">Pritchard is averaging 24.3 points and 6.7 assists in six games this season playing the second game of a back-to-back. He\u2019s also knocking down 43.8% of his 3-pointers in those scenarios. All those numbers are much higher than his normal averages. Of course, a sample size of six games isn\u2019t much, but it\u2019s still an impressive start to the season for Pritchard. \u201cI train for these moments,\u201d he said, \u201cso back-to-backs don\u2019t really bother me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"JLW6IZZV3ZCOHK3SP4NHET66MI\">His best night of the season came in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/2025\/12\/payton-pritchard-is-the-celtics-name-to-know-player-of-the-game-in-sundays-win-over-cavaliers.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/2025\/12\/payton-pritchard-is-the-celtics-name-to-know-player-of-the-game-in-sundays-win-over-cavaliers.html\">his 42-point outing against the Cavaliers<\/a>, when he seemingly couldn\u2019t miss. That outing also came when the C\u2019s were down two starters in Neemias Queta and Derrick White. So Pritchard has stepped up in a big way when the Celtics need someone to pick up the slack offensively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"SOCKEVL6PVAANJNND63MBMU2NQ\">Pritchard scored 19 points in the third quarter alone Saturday, though his playmaking also stood out. Pritchard has remarked he wants an all-around great offensive game, and that\u2019s what he delivered Saturday. He added 10 points to just one turnover for the Celtics, showcasing what he does at his best.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"HCFZEBN5IRBGPJJE4BCNUI7EBQ\">\u201cJust trying to turn up the pace,\u201d Pritchard said.&#8221; Get out in transition. Make things happen early. I feel like our team is at its best when we\u2019re really running even after makes. That was kind of the mindset. Just trying to play with like this relentless feel. I feel like I haven\u2019t had that defensively, offensively, playing like my hair is on fire. Up and down.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was clear Payton Pritchard was on against the Raptors, and after every make, it was shaping up&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-361983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}