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Jaylen Brown scores 41, Sam Hauser hits 10 threes in Celtics win over Hawks
Hauser became the first player in NBA history to attempt 20 or more threes without taking a shot inside the arc.
It’s not every night that a player becomes the first person in NBA history to achieve a certain feat. But Sam Hauser was having a far from ordinary night on Saturday.
Against the Hawks in Atlanta, Hauser hit 10 triples and became the first player in NBA history to attempt 20-plus 3-point field goals without attempting a 2-point shot.
He went 10 of 21 from beyond the arc on Saturday. That percentage would have been far higher had he not begun chasing Boston’s single-game 3-point record in garbage time; he’d been 10 of 15 at one point in the fourth quarter before missing his last six attempts.
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“It was terrible, I remember when Sam almost got the record when we were in Washington. He hurt his ankle, and I didn’t play that game so I was in the back , and I was like ‘bro, you gotta get back out there, I need you to get that record’,” Jaylen Brown said Saturday. “He was like ‘oh it’s gonna come back to me’. That was two years ago.
“It was a joy to watch [Saturday], we were all rooting for him, but probably it was a little too much pressure for him.”
Still, scoring 30 points and 10 threes was a remarkable enough feat, though actually not all unfamiliar to Hauser. Incidentally, the Celtics sharpshooter had a nearly identical night in that aforementioned contest against the Wizards, Hauser also scored 30 points, hitting 10 3s and not attempting a 2-point field goal. However, in that game he only attempted 13 threes.
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Brown had another great night in his own right, scoring a game-high 41 points in his hometown to continue his MVP surge. He also openly admitted that he doesn’t particularly enjoy playing in Atlanta despite his ties to the city.
“I do not get excited. In the past I haven’t really liked playing at home,” Brown told reporters. “It’s a lot of distractions being at home, so many people. But as you get older, I’m starting to find my middle ground. So tonight was good.”
With the win, Boston currently holds the No. 2 seed in the East with some wiggle room. It’s still 4.5 games back from the No. 1 seed Pistons, but now is 1.5 games ahead of the No. 3 Knicks. Overall, the Celtics’ 26-15 record is fifth-best in the NBA.
Boston will get to see how it measures up against the best team in the East on the road Monday night. Celtics-Pistons is slated for 8 p.m.
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