The Boston Celtics secured a 101-100 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night, led by their second unit. For almost the entire fourth quarter of the said game, head coach Joe Mazzulla decided to rest his usual starters and let their bench close out the game.
The game went down to the wire as the Boston Celtics almost blew their huge lead in the final period, but Xavier Tillman Sr. saved the day by knocking down the game-winning floater with 7.4 seconds left.
The Boston Celtics finished the game with 43 bench points, with Payton Pritchard leading the way with 21 points and five three-pointers, which should give them a huge confidence boost. However, it’s worth noting that one of the team’s most reliable players struggled all game long.
Sam Hauser, who started in Jaylen Brown’s place, went 1-of-18 shooting from the field. As pointed out by Sean Grande, this is one of the worst shooting games by a Boston Celtics player, and Jayson Tatum was the last player to go 1-of-18 from the field in a win against the Dallas Mavericks in November 2019.
“That’s like Brett Favre having the most interceptions and touchdowns,” Mazzulla said about Hauser’s historically bad shooting night.
For context, Brett Favre holds the NFL record for most career interceptions with 336. However, the three-time NFL MVP is considered one of the league’s greatest quarterbacks.
Why Sam Hauser’s poor shooting night might be a blessing in disguise for the Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard confidently believes that Sam Hauser will bounce back from his putrid shooting night against the Sacramento Kings since he is one of the league’s top three-point shooters.
With 182 makes out of 426 attempts, Sam Hauser is shooting 42.7 percent from three-point range this season, making him the eighth-most accurate sniper in the whole NBA.
“I think this is a good thing because that means the next couple of games he is going to be on fire,” Pritchard said about Hauser. “Sam is to me the best catch-and-shoot shooter in the league. And this is going to come back around, and he could go 10-for-10 next game like we’ve seen.”
“A win is a win. If he shoots normally, this is probably a 20-point game,” he added.