Payton Pritchard becomes fastest Celtics player to 100 threes in a season
BOSTON -- It's not even January, but we can probably go ahead and give Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award now. The C's reserve caught fire off the bench again Sunday night in Washington D.C., and helped lead Boston to a 112-98 win over the Wizards.
Pritchard scored 15 points in the Boston victory, doing all his damage from behind the three-point line. He set some Celtics team history in the process.
Pritchard becomes fastest Celtics player to 100 three-pointers
Pritchard hit five of his 10 three-point attempts on Sunday night, and his fourth make of the night was already his 100th made three of the season. Pritchard hit the century mark in just 26 games, making him the fastest Celtics player to hit 100 threes to start a season.
Pritchard bested the previous record of 27 games, which was set by Kemba Walker at the start of the 2019-20 season. The big difference though? Pritchard has done all of his scoring off the Boston bench.
Setting a Celtics team record is nice, but Pritchard also owns the NBA record for the fastest player to 100 threes off the bench. He beat that record by one game as well, previously held by Washington big man Davis Bertans, who also hit his 100th three in his 27th game during the 2019-20 NBA season.
Pritchard is now up to 101 made threes this season, and trails only Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, whose three-point tally is up to 108. But Edwards is a starter with over 150 minutes of more playing time than Pritchard this season. No other bench player in the NBA has more than 61 threes this season.
Pritchard goes streaking from deep
Pritchard is on another three-point streak at the moment, with Sunday night the third straight game he's knocked down at least five triples. He hit seven threes in last Thursday's win over the Detroit Pistons and six in last Saturday's loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
This is the second such streak for Pritchard this season, after he hit five threes in wins over Detroit and Washington and eight threes in a win over the Bucks back in late October. Pritchard has now hit at least five three-pointers in 13 games this season, which leads the NBA.
For the season, Pritchard is averaging 16.5 points per game off 48.5 shooting overall and 43.5 percent from beyond the arc -- all career highs for the fifth-year guard. He also pulled down 11 rebounds on Sunday night, and is averaging a career-best 3.6 boards per game.