{"id":544683,"date":"2026-01-18T13:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T13:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/544683\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T13:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T13:32:14","slug":"the-most-underrated-player-on-the-celtics-just-had-his-best-game-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/544683\/","title":{"rendered":"The most underrated player on the Celtics just had his best game yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA \u2014 In the background of a brilliant, overachieving Celtics season, Sam Hauser<\/a> has quietly become a starter.<\/p>\n

The fifth-year Celtics veteran rarely makes the headlines. He\u2019s not one of the team\u2019s shiny young prospects, nor is he one of their established go-to guys. He hardly ever puts up crazy numbers \u2014 Hauser has only eclipsed 20 points in a game three times this season \u2014 and he\u2019s not so young that Celtics fans gush over his sky-high potential, like they do the more recent draftees.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean Hauser hasn\u2019t been exactly what the Celtics have needed this season.<\/p>\n

While Jordan Walsh<\/a>, Josh Minott<\/a>, and Hugo Gonzalez<\/a> have all had hyped-up, breakthrough moments this year, Hauser has simply done what everyone\u2019s expected.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s defended solidly, and shot the ball well. And, he\u2019s embraced an ever-changing role, unbothered by whether or not he\u2019s coming off the bench or starting: \u201cIt really doesn\u2019t matter to me, to be honest with you,\u201d he said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, in a 132-106 Celtics win over the Atlanta Hawks, Hauser was at his very best, exploding for 30 points on 10-21 shooting. It\u2019s a flow state he\u2019s reached many times throughout his Celtics tenure, and one all sharpshooters can resonate with.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything you put up, it just feels like it\u2019s going to go in, or it\u2019s going to feel really good,\u201d Hauser said afterwards. \u201cAnd that\u2019s just kind of how it was tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hauser didn\u2019t end up breaking the Celtics franchise record for most threes in a game; after hitting his 10th three-pointer early in the fourth quarter, he missed six straight three-pointers to close the game. (Marcus Smart currently holds the Celtics\u2019 franchise record for most three-pointers in a game, having made 11 in a 2020 game).<\/p>\n

As his pursuit of the record went to the wayside, Hauser\u2019s teammates joked around on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was terrible,\u201d Jaylen Brown said, laughing, while Hauser hovered over Brown\u2019s postgame press conference with a listening ear.<\/p>\n

Brown, fresh off a 41-point performance of his own, recalled how the last time Hauser came close to setting the Celtics record for most three-pointers in a game, he sprained his ankle shortly after hitting his 10th three-pointer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t play that game, and I was in the back, and I was like, \u2018Bro, you got to get back out there. I need you to get that record,\u201d Brown recalled. \u201cAnd he was like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s gonna come back to me.\u2018 That was two years ago\u2026. It might be another two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was a joy to watch, man,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe was all rooting for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a slow start, Sam Hauser\u2019s shooting has come back around<\/p>\n

Hauser dealt with a shooting slump in the early part of the season, but the numbers are coming back around. Since December 1st, he\u2019s hit 43% of his three-point attempts (in contrast, in November, he shot 27.5% from outside the arc).<\/p>\n

When the shot wasn\u2019t falling, Hauser consulted his father, whom he refers to as the \u2018Shot Doctor.\u2019 Dave Hauser taught Sam how to shoot as a kid and regularly gives him feedback when the shot is straying.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows me better than anybody else,\u201d Hauser said. \u201cSo hearing his thoughts means more than any other word that\u2019s said to me about my shot \u2014 just because he knows he seen me from here shoot all the way here [lowers hand] until now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, despite an ice-cold November, Hauser is shooting 38.9% from three-point range on the season \u2014 and he seems well on his way to another 40%+ shooting season. (Famously, he has never shot below 40% from three; not in high school, not in college, and not in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Last year, when Hauser was experiencing a shooting slump, his mom, Stephanie, told CelticsBlog that she knew the numbers would come around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just said to him, just keep shooting, because you know, in the end, it will all suddenly end up at around 40% \u2014 because your whole life, that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happened,\u201d Stephanie said.<\/p>\n

Hauser continues to be underrated defender<\/p>\n

The idea that Hauser is a defensive liability is misguided.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the better defenders that we have,\u201d Joe Mazzulla said plainly last week.<\/p>\n

For Hauser, the defensive success oftentimes stems from the fact that he closely studies opposing players\u2019 tendencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coaches do a good job with sending us personnel edits,\u201d Hauser said. \u201cThey send us write-ups of the [opposing players\u2019 shot] percentages, or where they\u2019re driving, or how often they\u2019re driving that way, or what hand they like to drive with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hauser studies those scouting reports, eager to make up for any athleticism deficit he has with meticulous preparation, a process that Mazzulla has lauded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not the quickest player laterally, so for me to know that and to try and to anticipate some of these things \u2014 it\u2019s big for me to try to keep the guy in front and make it hard for them to try to shoot,\u201d Hauser said. \u201cI try my best. I don\u2019t always do it well, but I try my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mazzulla pointed to two defensive plays that illustrated Hauser\u2019s defensive preparation: a steal against RJ Barrett last Friday against the Raptors and one against Nikola Jovic against the Heat on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The numbers also back up Hauser\u2019s level of discipline; he is in the 98th percentile in defensive fouls, meaning that only 2% of defenders foul less than him, per Cleaning the Glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows players\u2019 tendencies; he can take those away in real time,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cHe\u2019s physical, much more physical than people think, and he\u2019s versatile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hauser has been far from the flashiest story of the season.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s been a key member of a Celtics team that now holds the second-best record in the Eastern Conference \u2014 and the second-best net rating in the NBA.<\/p>\n

And, Hauser\u2019s contributions have looked like something different every night. Some nights, they\u2019re subtle. Other nights, they\u2019re louder.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, they looked like 10 three-pointers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 In the background of a brilliant, overachieving Celtics season, Sam Hauser has quietly become a starter.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,37650,37728,21388,677,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-544683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-boston-celtics-articles","13":"tag-celtics-features","14":"tag-celtics-news","15":"tag-hawks","16":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115916357218771897","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}