On January 3, the Boston Celtics re-inserted Sam Hauser into the starting lineup. On January 5, he started consecutive games for the first time since the opening week of the season. He’s started in every game since, and the results have panned out much differently than they did in Boston’s first two matchups of the campaign.
Across Hauser’s last nine appearances, which were all starts (he missed the Jan. 10 matchup against the San Antonio Spurs), the Cs are 6-3. Though they haven’t necessarily felt dominant, the numbers say they have been, especially with Hauser on the floor with the regular starters.
“I just think they're playing well,” Joe Mazzulla explained to reporters. “Our defense has gotten better. I think our offensive execution has gotten better. I think, you know, Sam's ability to just continue to play two-way basketball, his ability to defend at a high level, you know, and then it obviously just allows us to spread the floor and play a little bit offensively.”
Hauser's shooting has unlocked the Celtics' starting lineup
Spacing is the name of the game for Hauser, who has made a career out of knocking down threes of the catch. It certainly helps that he’s been on fire during this recent stretch. Hauser, since rejoining the starters, has made 50% of his attempts from the field and 46% from beyond the arc.
His 17 points on 6-8 from the field and 5-7 from deep against the Pacers would signal that. Not to mention how effective he’s been defensively, as Mazzulla pointed out, and on the glass. Despite his looks, as Jrue Holiday told everyone so aptly a few years back, Hauser is an effective defender.
After some rough patches through the first two months of the season, it seems that No. 30 has arrived. His presence alone puts pressure on the defense to stay home on him, rather than helping on whichever Celtic drives to the paint.
In 68 minutes together over the past nine games, Boston’s new/old starting lineup has an offensive rating of 130.6, a defensive rating of 115.9, and a net rating of 14.7. They’ve been wildly effective as a unit, taking great care of the basketball and putting up points efficiently.
What changed?
Well, not much actually, they’ve simply had more time to gel as a unit.
“When I got back to starting, we were, like, 35 games in, and we kind of figured out, like, our identity and who we actually were going to be this year,” Hauser explained.” And this first, that first week or two of the season, we were just trying to figure it out, and everybody was in kind of a different role, and getting used to that and adjusting to it. And then now, by this time of the season, kind of everybody kind of realizes how they can help this team in the best way possible.”
The Celtics have been awesome this season. They’re better than they were in October. They’re better than they were in November. They’ve probably cooled off since a red-hot December, but are still playing relatively well -- especially compared to preseason expectations.
Hopefully, as they play more games, they’ll gel more, and they’ll continue to build chemistry.