Payton Pritchard hasn’t quite looked like himself lately, and that’s OK.
The reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year, poised to make his latest career leap with increased responsibility as one of the top-3 premier scorers in the 2025-26 Celtics lineup, hasn’t been able to rely on his greatest offensive strength: his 3-point shot.
Pritchard entered Wednesday night’s game against the Wizards shooting a career-low 21.3% from beyond the arc through his first eight games of the season. The slump even took an early-season toll on the retooled Celtics, whose offense struggled to find rhythm and consistency, leading to back-to-back losses to the Rockets and Jazz to begin a three-game homestand.
That left the undersized guard with no choice but to find new ways to produce and stay impactful.
“Obviously, with me not shooting the three ball as well to start the year as efficiently as I would like,” Pritchard said after Boston’s 136-107 blowout win over Washington at TD Garden. “Obviously, that will come, but I know getting to the paint can be easier looks and can be my bread and butter. It’s a combination of using my body and also, with my handle, being able to control it — bump, change direction off of it, and then get to a spot.”
In recent years, Pritchard has incorporated rigorous one-on-one drills into his offseason routine. He often goes the extra mile, paying professionals and college prospects to help him simulate real-game situations designed to force him to score within the limitations of his 6-foot-1, 194-pound frame and without relying on the 3-point line as a safety net.
After the Celtics fell to the Heat in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, Pritchard reached out to 6-foot-9 forward Brooks DeBisschop, then playing professionally in Europe, to work out just days after Boston’s elimination. The sessions pushed Pritchard to demand the best from DeBisschop defensively while expanding his own offensive arsenal — and it paid off. Over the next two seasons, Pritchard averaged a career-high 9.6 points, then topped that with 14.3 points during Boston’s championship run and repeat bid, raising his value and earning greater trust within the organization.
It’s now become a part of Pritchard’s behind-the-scenes preparation, permanently.
“I’ve trained so many hours that now it’s so instinctual,” he explained. “I’m just finding it could be a foul, it could be an opening. I don’t even think when I’m doing a move, it just happens so naturally.”
Pritchard played a key role in getting the Celtics back in the win column Wednesday night against a struggling Washington team that ranks 29th in the league in defensive rating (121.4). He scored 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, tallied two rebounds and five assists, and logged a season-high +36 in 24 minutes. Pritchard used his quickness to dribble around 6-foot-5 guard Tre Johnson for easy layup opportunities and drew defenders into the paint, creating open looks for Jordan Walsh and Sam Hauser in the third quarter.
The approach of leaning on his offseason work when the 3-pointer isn’t falling has paid dividends for the Celtics in other ways. Pritchard is averaging a team and career-high 5.2 assists per game this season, consistently involving teammates to keep the offense flowing, even when he’s out of sync. When defenders trap him, he defers; when he sneaks inside and finds an opening, he makes even taller, more physically imposing defenders look foolish by scoring in more difficult ways.
“I think he’s always had that,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “He’s always been a three-level scorer and played with good pace. I think it’s something that he’s always had.”
Pritchard certainly became more aggressive in searching for ways to score inside last season. This year, he has taken it a step further, doubling his 2-point attempts from 3.0 per game last season to 6.1 and converting them at a career-high 67.3%. With the speed, ball control, and basketball IQ required for a vertically challenged guard to attack the basket, Pritchard is showcasing this skill more prominently than at any point in his career.
That all came together during Boston’s homestand-ending win, although Pritchard wouldn’t consider the performance worthy of an A-plus by his own standards.
He committed two turnovers, which he described as “bad,” but promised he wouldn’t dwell on them long enough for them to affect him.
“I love basketball too much to get negative,” Pritchard said. “I wanna come in and play and show it. So that’s where my mind was at — just be ready.”
It’s easy to imagine that once the 3-pointer begins to fall for Pritchard, it’ll unlock a version of the Oregon product the Celtics haven’t seen before.
