BROOKLYN — In a victory against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, Sam Hauser played just 7 minutes. It was his first time logging single-digit minutes in a regular season game since last February, and the benching came amid an abysmal shooting slump that has seen the 26-year-old make just 18.9% of his three-pointer attempts in November.
“Of course, it’s hard, but you kind of just have to, like you said, roll with the punches and take advantage of the time you are out there — and still try to help
the team win,” Hauser said.
Rolling with the punches helped ensure that Hauser was ready to contribute to winning in the Celtics’ subsequent regular season game, 113-199 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
A back-and-forth, turnover-filled game was tied at 90 with 8 minutes to play when Hauser recovered a loose ball that led to a Neemias Queta dunk.
Two possessions later, he sunk a three-pointer that extended the Celtics lead to 7 points. And, a few minutes after that, he chased down his own missed three-pointer to found Derrick White for a corner three-pointer.
The result? Hauser played all but 18 seconds of the fourth quarter, finishing the night with 8 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. In his 22 minutes, the Celtics outscored the Nets by 22 points, the best plus-minus of any player on the court.
So, Joe Mazzulla, who earlier this season heavily relied on Josh Minott for wing minutes — and has more recently leaned on Jordan Walsh — turned to Hauser to close.
“I thought his defense was great,” Mazzulla said. “I thought his rebounding was really good, and he had a big-time steal at half court that I thought kind of changed the game.”
Hauser shared that Celtics coach has stressed to players all season long to place the team above the individual.
“Try to be external, and don’t be internal,” he said. “It’s hard in the moment.”
Hauser knows that his shooting has not been up to his normal standard — this season, he’s converting on 32.9% of his three-point attempts, a significant decline from his 41.4% career three-point average.
So, he’s trying to do other things — rebound the ball, guard as best he can, and make winning plays that might not always involve putting the ball in the basket.
“Just be a basketball player, I guess,” he said. “At the end of the day, you might be here for one specific trait. You might be really good at it, but how can you impact your team a different way when that trait is not [up] to its normal standard? Just be a basketball player.”
On Tuesday, that meant pressuring the ball full-court for extended stretches, something he’s rarely done in his NBA career.
“It’s definitely an adjustment, but that’s kind of what Joe wants,” Hauser said. “So, kind of have to get used to it. And sometimes, it’s on the fly, just like tonight — so just gotta roll with it.”
Joe Mazzulla continues to lean on depth as a strength
For Mazzulla, there are a breadth of players to choose from any given night. Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, and Neemias Queta have started every game so far this season, but the fifth starting spot has been up for grabs.
Josh Minott has started nine games, Walsh three games, Hauser two games, and Hugo Gonzalez one. But, starting hasn’t necessarily meant Mazzulla is committed to that player for the night; Walsh started on Tuesday against the Nets, but played only 11 minutes. Last week, Minott started in Philadelphia, but ended up playing just 8 minutes.
Baylor Scheierman has yet to start a game, but he has tallied at least 12 minutes in three consecutive games after a week of DNPs.
Mazzulla said he can usually tell pretty quickly who has it on any given night.
“It’s not necessarily energy,” he said. “You can just tell. We got guys that can bring different things to the game. So I think that flexibility and that depth, we have to take advantage of as a team. I think it gives us the best chance to win every night, to be able to go to different stuff gives us the best chance to be successful over the long run, and the guys are doing a good job of it.”
For Hauser, the mindset has been simple: team-first. So, he’s not going to worry if he’s not a part of a closing lineup one night, and is back in one the next.
“Don’t think about yourself. Think about the team first. If you’re thinking about yourself, then your head’s not in the right place,” Hauser said. “It’s gonna be a lot of that this year, I feel like. Just changing lineups, rotations, just trying to figure out what works. And the other game, a different lineup was working, so he rolled with that, and that’s cool.”
Mazzulla has been impressed by how Hauser — and the rest of the Celtics bench players — have dealt with the unpredictable rotations.
“You see him handle it just by being positive, by working hard and having an understanding of it,” Mazzulla said. “So, it’s a credit to him. It’s a credit to the guys. At the end of the day, we got 12-13 guys that can really impact winning.”
It’s not particularly easy to not have a clear sense of what your night might end up looking like. But, that’s not impacting Hauser’s buy-in in Mazzulla’s system: “You just have to trust it.”
