In Game 5 against the New York Knicks earlier this week, the Boston Celtics worked to navigate their first contest in a post-Jayson Tatum world following the star’s Achilles tear. The C’s managed to fight off elimination with a 127-102 win, but adjusting to life without their franchise player won’t be an easy task as they work to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the second round of the playoffs.
It was truly a team effort in Game 5 as six Celtics players logged points in the double figures. Reigning Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard was one of them, and after a 17-point performance, he looks to follow it up with a better game tonight.
Here’s the top Payton Pritchard prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook for Celtics vs. Knicks Game 6 tonight.
Best Payton Pritchard prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
DraftKings Sportsbook lists Pritchard’s prop betting lines at 15.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 3.5 three-pointers. His combined PTS + REB + AST line sits at 23.5 across the board.
After being listed as betting favorites in most of this series, the Celtics now find themselves at +120 on the Moneyline as 2.5-point underdogs. The game total sits at 211.5 combined points.
Across 10 games this postseason, Pritchard averages 12.0 points per game along with 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists. He’s seen 27.4 minutes per contest, but with the rotation now in flux after Tatum’s injury, Pritchard will see much more time on the court. He logged 39 minutes in Game 5, clearly an effort for the Celtics to put their best remaining players on the court as much as possible.
Typically, Pritchard’s role remained limited to a spark-plug capacity. He took an average of 10.8 shots per outing during the regular season with a usage rate of 19.0%. It’s a bit tough to predict what will happen if he does play a starter’s share of minutes moving forward, however, per-36 numbers give a bit of an idea. Based on those per-36 stats, Pritchard’s averages come out to 18.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 4.4 assists with 13.7 field goal attempts per game.
The territory remains somewhat unpredictable, but Pritchard clearly has plenty of talent. The Oregon product can score with the best of them and his shooting efficiency from three-point range looks great, hitting 41.3% of his shots on 6.3 attempts per contest. With that in mind, targeting the over on 15.5 points at -110 odds makes sense, as does over 3.5 three-pointers at +120 odds. Pritchard should see plenty of shots tonight as he took 17 attempts last time out. With increased volume, bettors can get ahead of the curve as the NBA world sees what Pritchard can do.
