The Boston Celtics started their season off with perhaps one of the most challenging stretches of their 2025-26 NBA regular season schedule, playing a tough slate of teams clustered together tightly that makes even the weaker ball clubs on the slate of games Boston is currently in the thick of harder than usual to beat given fatigue.
Between the start of their current campaign and Nov. 12, the Celtics have had a game every other day apart from a few back-to-back tilts to make the legs even more wobbly. And while every team in the league has to play the schedule in front of them, it also played a secondary role behind the size of the team in Boston’s 128-101 blowout loss to the Houston Rockets on Saturday (Nov. 1) night. After the loss, Payton Pritchard pointed to the collective exhaustion the team has been playing through as an explanation for some of the poor play against Houston, if not an excuse.
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“Maybe we made fatigue decisions out there on the court (…),” said Pritchard. “We came ready to play, but we got popped tonight. So move on and get ready for the next one.”
Nov 1, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard (11) drives to the basket defended by Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) during the first half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images
“Sometimes even when we had a championship level team, you got popped on some nights like this, and you just turn the page and get ready for the next game,” he added. “It’s 82 games. It’s a lot of traveling, a lot of back to backs at times, so it can be tiring. And I think they came off two nights of rest, so they showed it tonight and killed us.”
And while it may be rough sledding at present for Boston to play so much so close together, there will be rest later in the season other teams won’t be blessed with. Until then, it’ll be the reality Boston has to play though until the middle of the month, and with the schedule getting a bit lighter in terms of competition, there may be other ways to get some rest in-game, should things go well against the likes of the Washington Wizards and Utah Jazz.
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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: ’25-26 starts hard and fast for Celtics, but Payton Pritchard is ready