Mazzulla’s latest statement includes huge prediction for Celtics player

The Boston Celtics barely hung on to take down the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night. A 9-0 run to open the game led to an early Joe Mazzulla timeout, yet Brooklyn’s lead quickly ballooned to 16-2. Boston spent the rest of the night battling back, eventually earning a 108-104 win in overtime.

Throughout the course of the game, it felt like nothing was going right for Boston, especially from behind the three-point line. Sam Hauser, in particular, struggled to find his touch. He ended the game shooting just 2-of-10 from behind the three-point arc, but he never stopped shooting.

That’s what the Celtics require of him.

Mazzulla knows a big-time Hauser game is incoming

Late in the game, with just 2:06 to go and the Celtics down by two, Hauser nailed one of the biggest shots of the game—a corner three to put the Celtics up 92-91.

But it was the pass that led to the shot that stood out.

Jayson Tatum drove to the rack, but rather than going up, he found a wide-open Hauser. The Celtics superstar made the right play, regardless of how cold Hauser had been up to that point. And that’s exactly the way Joe Mazzulla wants the Celtics to play basketball.

“It's a credit to him having an understanding of, 'You need your teammates.' And all of his teammates were empowering him to keep shooting,” Mazzulla said of the play. “And 1-for-9 just means he's going to have a 6-for-10 game coming up here soon. So, it's just part of the game. He generated great looks. He got great looks. He has to shoot then.  The guys have to pass to him. And we move on about our day.”

Perhaps Mazzulla’s forecast of Hauser going 6-of-10 from deep in an upcoming game is less projection and more math, but still, that’s what the Celtics do. Math.

Mazzulla knows his guys. He knows Hauser is one of the best three-point shooters in the league. Him missing a few threes doesn’t change that, so the Celtics need to keep feeding him when he’s open.

They have the talent to trust the math. Mazzulla abides by it no matter what, and he requires his players to do the same.

Had Tatum not trusted the math, the Celtics might not have scored on that possession. That could have created a butterfly effect that would have thrown off the entire trajectory of the contest.

But he didn’t stray from the game plan. He made the pass. And Hauser knocked it down.