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Sam Hauser, Jayson Tatum barrage Wizards with 3-pointers in blowout win: 7 takeaways
The Celtics stomped the Wizards on Sunday with a 130-104 road win.
The Celtics rolled to their fifth straight victory on Sunday, blowing out the Wizards 130-104 on the road despite missing multiple starters.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Sam Hauser had a chance to make NBA history before an unlucky step derailed his evening.
Hauser started along with Oshae Brissett and Al Horford, replacing Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Kristaps Porzingis who were all ruled out prior to the game. Facing a porous Wizards defense, Hauser quickly caught fire from behind the arc and buried seven 3-pointers in the first half. He knocked down three more in the third quarter, but after launching an attempt for his 11th of the game (which missed), he stepped backward and turned his ankle on someone’s foot sitting on the Wizards bench.
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Hauser limped off the floor and straight to the locker room looking understandably disappointed: At 10-for-13 from behind the arc, he was just one 3-pointer away from breaking Marcus Smart’s franchise record, and he was four away from tying the NBA’s all-time single-game record of 14 set by Klay Thompson. To make matters more interesting, the Celtics were blowing out the Wizards, and Hauser often plays with the Celtics’ second and third units. He would have had a lot of time to get shots up the rest of the way.
Instead, Hauser will have to settle for a 30-point evening and perhaps the most impressive individual shooting display of the Celtics’ season to date.
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After the game, Mazzulla said Hauser will get precautionary X-rays on his ankle.
“Loved his confidence, loved his aggressiveness, loved how our guys looked for him, loved that he got his shots within the flow of our execution, and that’s the weapon that he is,” Mazzulla said.
Mazzulla also praised Hauser’s ability to get himself open off the ball. The best spot-up shooters generally freelance a bit on the offensive end, floating optimistically into open spaces as they look for opportunities to hoist triples. Hauser is a perfect example.
“Sam has an innate way to find ways into the action within the flow of our offense, which is huge for us,” Mazzulla said.”I didn’t have to call many plays for him between his ability to read that on his own and his teammates trying to find him.”
2. Jayson Tatum did most of his damage from 3-point range as well, scoring 30 points on 8-for-17 shooting, including 6-for-12 from behind the arc.
For Hauser, 3-point shooting is most of his bag. For Tatum, it’s a nice way to supplement all of his forays into the paint. Against a Wizards team with (by far) the league’s worst defense playing on the second night of a back to back, Tatum was able to take much of the evening off and just work on his target practice. He drove here and there but kept tough miles off his legs, and he was able to kick his feet up with more than four minutes remaining in the third quarter.
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The Celtics have a difficult week ahead with five games in seven nights (including two road games at the tail end), and while the opponents aren’t particularly strong, starting the tough stretch with a comfortable win in which Tatum did minimal work was a positive.
3. We probably haven’t made enough noise about Payton Pritchard this season, but he has looked a lot more like a pure point guard rather than an undersized scoring guard off the bench, which exponentially increases his usefulness.
On Sunday, Pritchard dished out a career-high 13 assists. He is very difficult to strip with the ball in his hands, which slows the game down and allows him to watch patiently as plays develop. Eight of his 13 assists resulted in layups or dunks.
“Just making the right plays,” Pritchard told NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin after the game. “I feel like I’m a point guard, my game is a point guard, sometimes I play off ball, but when I have the ball in my hands, I’m always trying to get my guys easy shots. When I can score it, I’ll score it, but just play efficiently and make the right plays.”
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4. Another decent summation of the Celtics’ evening: Jrue Holiday played 22 very unremarkable minutes (3-for-7, seven points, three assists) and was +17. The Celtics needed very little from their regular contributors.
5. Jordan Poole looked great on the offensive end: 31 points on 12-for-19 shooting (3-for-6 from 3-point range) in just 23 minutes. The Wizards face a dilemma, however: Poole is unquestionably a gifted scorer, but he gives so much back on the defensive end, you really need everyone else in the starting lineup to be a plus defender which is absolutely not the case in Washington.
6. Tatum offered some nice sentiments postgame explaining why it matters to play as often as possible.
“I don’t like to sit out,” he told reporters. “I understand if I was injured or whatever, but I’ve said it before, I just love to play the game. Especially on the road — there’s so many fans out there with ‘Tatum 0’ jerseys on who came to see me play. So I kind of take pride in making sure I’m available as much as I can.”
Presumably, this woman appreciates that mindset quite a bit.
7. The Celtics will travel back to Boston Sunday night to get ready for a game against the Pistons on Monday. They face the Bucks on Wednesday before back-to-back contests on the road against the Pistons and Bulls.
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