Celtics React to Major Payton Pritchard Announcement

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Ashish Mathur | Last updated Apr 20, 2025 7:12 PM ET

The Boston Celtics defeated the Orlando Magic on Sunday to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The Celtics are now 15 wins away from becoming the first team since the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors to win back-to-back championships.

Boston was led in scoring by Derrick White, who finished with 30 points against the Magic. Reserve guard Payton Pritchard was second in scoring with 19 points.

Shortly after the Celtics won Game 1, the NBA announced that Pritchard was a finalist for the Sixth Man of the Year Award, and as expected, the Boston franchise congratulated the scoring guard.

Congrats @paytonpritch3 on being named a top-three finalist for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award pic.twitter.com/L50CercedO
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 20, 2025

Pritchard was terrific for the Celtics during the regular season. He averaged 14.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting 47.2% from the field, 40.7% from beyond the arc and 84.5% from the free-throw line.

The 27-year-old Pritchard scored a season-high 43 points in March against the Portland Trail Blazers. Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Jayson Tatum didn't play in that contest, so Pritchard had to step up his game and that's exactly what he did.

Pritchard has spent his entire NBA career with the Celtics. He was the 26th overall pick in the 2020 Draft out of Oregon. Pritchard has career averages of 9.1 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

The Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals. Pritchard averaged only 3.4 points in the five-game series, so if Boston gets back to the NBA Finals this year, we can assume that Pritchard will want to play better than he did in 2024.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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