A funny thing happens when 3-pointers are falling.
People stop complaining about them.
The Celtics are on a 3-point binge lately, hitting 69 of them over their last three games. Only one team has hit more over a three-game span (Utah, 2021). The Celtics are generating incredible looks all over the floor and it’s paying off with them making 46.3% of those shots. Boston is shooting almost 43% from deep since the All-Star break.
But unlike years past when the Celtics have gotten hot, this isn’t just some barrage of bombs where the Celtics are firing up as many as possible. In fact, their 3-point attempts are slightly down since the All-Star break, from 47.3% of their field goal attempts to 46.6% of their attempts. And while that number is admittedly negligible, it does show that the Celtics haven't become hyper-focused on it. They haven't leaned into the hot shooting to take even more from long-range.
That is, unless Sam Hauser is on fire.
The Celtics took 50 3-pointers against the Wizards, half by Hauser and Jayson Tatum. They combined to shoot 16-25, a cool 64%. Hauser alone matched the entire Wizards squad by making 10 of his 3-pointers but only needing about a third of the shots to get there.
“It was great,” Joe Mazzulla said after the easy win in Washington. “Loved his confidence, loved his aggressiveness, loved how guys looked for him, love how he got his shots within the flow of our execution. And that's the weapon that he is.”
Hauser missed a real chance at history because of a sprained ankle that ended his night in the third quarter, but it’s hard to believe this will be the only game where he touches double-digit 3-point makes. Still, when history presents itself, players want to make it.
“We were trying to get him to break the record,” Tatum said after the game. Marcus Smart holds the Boston record with 11, and Klay Thompson owns the NBA record of 14 in a game.
“We knew he had seven at halftime,” Al Horford said. “So we definitely wanted to make sure that we just kept him involved in the offense. When you got it going like that, when you’re that hot shooting, you want to keep it going.”
Of the 13 attempts, only one could be considered a forced shot. That just happened to be the one where he sprained his ankle, but had he stayed in, the Celtics were willing to go all out to get him more shots.
Tatum, who was blistering hot himself to start the game, said he was willing to “screen for him, get him open, and I told him if he had any daylight to let it fly.” But as much as Hauser is more than happy to shoot the ball, he’s also not always focused on just getting his own shot. He is, after all, a complementary player on a team full of scorers.
“Sam is the kind of guy that he doesn’t care,” Horford said. “He came in at halftime and he didn’t care. He just wants to play the right way. He wants to make the right play. And that's what he’s going to do.”
You could see that in a late-second quarter stretch where Hauser had chances to shoot but instead decided to keep the ball moving.
The Wizards called a timeout after Hauser’s sixth 3-pointer of the half. On the first trip down after that, Hauser caught the ball on the left side with enough space to launch a heat check. But instead, he fired a bounce pass to Horford for a jump hook. On the next possession, he caught it on the right side and attacked an aggressive closeout. He had a chance to hit the brakes and step-back into a 3-point attempt, but he kept going and dropped the ball off to Jrue Holiday for an even easier corner attempt which just happened to miss.
By the time Hauser had hit his 10th shot, the Wizards seemed determined not to let him get any more clean looks. That's when Hauser ultimately got hurt and left the game, which kept us from potentially seeing history.
But to get there, Hauser would have had to continue making passes to keep the defense honest. We never got a chance to see how he would have shaken free, but we were -this- close to seeing a team be more concerned with Hauser than any other Celtic on the floor.
That would have been weird, but it’s also a potential glimpse into Boston’s basketball future. On a full-strength Boston team, a hot Hauser getting any extra attention would mean death for the opponent. It would be a natural reaction to worry too much about a guy on a record-setting shooting pace, but he has All-NBA and All-Star teammates around him. Who are you leaving?
Hauser nearly set a record in Washington, but he did something more important than that against Washington. He became such a threat that a team threw out its defensive game plan to focus on him. Teams have to worry about Hauser, and if that stays true in the playoffs, then this offense is going to be impossible to stop.
