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Payton Pritchard came out of the bench and changed games for the Boston Celtics this season.
He was the only NBA player with more than 1,000 points in the matches he did not start. He set the League record for the 3 points made by a backup. And the voters have noticed all of this and more, by choosing the Celtics goalkeeper as sixth man of the league this season.
Pritchard preceded Malik Beasley from Detroit and Ty Jerome de Cleveland for the price. This is the fifth time that a Celtic player has won the award: Kevin Mchale claimed it in 1984 and 1985, Bill Walton in 1986 and Malcolm Brogdon won it in 2023.
And perhaps rightly, the price is appointed for another Celtics legend – John Havlicek.
“Payton is a baller – and his teammates know what they get every day in terms of efforts, care and commitment,” said Celtics president Brad Stevens in a statement published by the team. “To be honored by the prize named after the great John Havlicek is a credit to everything he brings to the table for our team.”
This is the first of the NBA Awards of this season to be announced, with others to disperse in the coming weeks. The clutch player’s prize for the year (Jalen Brunson from New York, Anthony Edwards from Minnesota or Nikola Jokic de Denver) will be announced on Wednesday evening and the defensive player of the year (Dyson Daniels of Atlanta, Draymond Green of Golden State or Evan Mobley of Cleveland) will be announced on Thursday evening.
The prices are voted by a global panel of 100 writers and broadcasters who cover the League.
Pritchard led all the reserves in points (1,079 in the matches in which he did not start), at 3 points (246, without the inclusion of nine others he did during his three games as a starter), with more and less (+428). And among the non-starters, its total aid at 257 ranked third in the league behind TJ McConnell from the Indiana and Scoot Henderson of Portland.
Pritchard is a favorite of fans in Boston for a multitude of reasons, in particular his energy and his penchant – not to mention the will – to draw from the 3 deep at the ends of the neighborhoods and halves, even of the percentage with low percentage which, in theory, could harm its statistics. He also had one of the wildest triple (although he does not technically count as one) in the history of the NBA on March 5, when he had 43 points, 10 rebounds and 10 3 points made, all this out of the bench.
The Celtics have won many games anyway; They were 61-21 this season. But when Pritchard was great, they were even more difficult to beat. Boston went 17-6 this season when Pritchard came out of the bench and scored at least 20 points, 36-12 when he left the bench and scored at least 10 points.
Report by the Associated Press.
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