The Celtics and Pistons tipoff the NBA season on Tuesday afternoon in Detroit. Let’s breakdown a betting angle on Payton Pritchard’s point prop for the game.
Payton Pritchard Points Prop Pick vs. Pistons
Pritchard has continued to grow his role season after season with the Celtics. Boston rewarded him yet again just before the season, giving Pritchard a two-year extension worth north of $44 million. While the former NBA Sixth Man of the Year will remain in a bench role, the C’s will likely lean on him even more as a scorer this season.
After winning the award two seasons ago, Pritchard took another leap last season, averaging 17 points per game. While this year’s version of the Celtics will be built around Jayson Tatum, rather than Jaylen Brown, that should be a good thing for Pritchard. Tatum works better as the hub of Boston’s offense, and is more natural as a playmaker. It should lead to more distribution and even better looks for a team that already has not been shy to space the floor and let it fly. Joe Mazzula has also raved about Pritchard’s ability to generate his own shot.
The Celtics have made mention to letting Pritchard continue to grow as a scorer to makeup some of the points they’ll be missing with Brown gone. Of course, Paul George is expected to produce, but Pritchard has thrived when Brown is off the floor. In 10 games that Brown missed last season that Pritchard played in, he averaged 25.2 points per game.
I’m expecting an aggressive Pritchard off the bench this season for the Celtics, and him to fit even better in this offense than the one’s he has thrived in the past two seasons. I’ll back Pritchard to go over his points prop for the game, and think it’s worth a smaller stab to ladder him up a bit. We can pair that with Celtics moneyline to get nearly a 4-1 payout. The Celtics have had great vibes with this new core. They’re out to prove something, and I believe they can be a very strong regular season team.
NBA Pick: Payton Pritchard OVER 15.5 Points (-120)
SGP Pick: Celtics ML/Pritchard 20+ Points (+390)
