One of the clearest signs of Payton Pritchard’s meteoric rise this season is how opponents are treating him.

Multiple opposing coaches, from Milwaukee’s Doc Rivers to Cleveland’s Kenny Atkinson, have said stopping the Celtics’ high-scoring sixth man was a priority for their teams. Heat bench boss Erik Spoelstra was the latest to praise Pritchard after he lit up Miami on Monday, tallying 25 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block in 33 minutes off the bench in Boston’s 108-89 win.

“This is an example of not something that’s overnight,” Spoelstra said. “Everyone wants instant gratification. This guy’s been grinding and working year after year, and each year he’s gotten better, and then all of a sudden, he’s getting to this level where he’s in Sixth Man of the Year conversations. I think the skill set and the work ethic, that’s been there, and you just continue to get better, and all of a sudden people start to notice.”

Pritchard is on pace to shatter his career highs in nearly every shooting and scoring category, as well as steals, with Mazzulla frequently lauding the guard’s improved on-ball defense. He’s the runaway favorite for NBA Sixth Man of the Year at this early stage of the season, and he’s been especially prolific of late, scoring 20-plus points in each of Boston’s last four games and eight of his 21 appearances overall.

Before this season, Pritchard had topped 20 points just 18 times in 185 career regular-season games.

Mazzulla has trusted Pritchard in the most important moments, playing him the entire fourth quarter in two of those games and only lifting him in garbage time in the two others, and Pritchard has shown that he’s more than just a long-range sniper. He scored more twos than threes over the Celtics’ last two contests, including a well-worked, highlight-reel layup that beat the third-quarter buzzer against Miami.

“Payton’s definitely been in my bag, man, for sure,” Jaylen Brown said. “… He’s definitely getting the upfakes, the post moves. He’s definitely been expanding his game, and I love to see it. I said it before the season started, we play through Payton against certain teams and matchups. Now, I don’t think anybody thinks anything of that comment.

“Now we’re going to continue to do that, continue to look for him to get going, because he’s proven that it don’t even matter. It’s any team now. So when he’s got it going, it makes it easier and it’s better for us as a team.”

That other coaches are taking notice of Pritchard’s talents and shaping their game plans around him — while also having to contend with the likes of Brown, Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, etc. — says a lot about the undersized 26-year-old, who didn’t become an everyday contributor until his fourth Celtics season.

“It says one, about him, just as a player, as he’s continued to grow and be patient,” Mazzulla said. “Again, the hardest thing for young guys is to make it through their first contract when there’s a lot of unknowns. You look at his first year, he played a lot, then Kemba (Walker) came back and he didn’t play. And it seems like his first couple years, every year, there were just wings ahead of him. He just continued to work. That’s hard to do for a young guy.

“And I think the second piece is that his teammates understand that we need to have a different identity. We need to go to different stuff, and he takes a ton of pressure off the other guys. So I think it’s twofold, right? It’s what he’s done, and it’s the team empowering him to do that, because he’s special.”