CHARLOTTE — Sam Hauser is day-to-day with back pain and called his recovery a work in progress after returning from a three game absence with the pain on Wednesday at Indiana. Hauser played only 13:50 while shooting 1-of-4 from three in the overtime loss.
He’s active for the first half of the Celtics’ back-to-back in Charlotte and is hoping he doesn’t have to manage it for a long time. Hauser initially noticed the pain when he woke up following opening night, though he didn’t feel any pain in the win over the Knicks. The following day in Washington DC, after being ruled inactive, he told reporters that he dealt with similar pain during the summer.
“No moment (where I hurt it),” Hauser said on Friday. “Just kind of on-and-off. It could be just many years of playing basketball, quite honestly. Hopefully it’s just a little flare-up and we can get rid of it.”
Hauser and Kristaps Porzingis’ combined absences created rotation challenges for the Celtics, who mostly tightened the rotation and leaned on Xavier Tillman Sr. at the four to sustain in his absence. Tillman Sr. and Luke Kornet’s lineup struggled to space the floor and Boston went on to try smaller lineups with Jordan Walsh and Tillman Sr. playing center. Neemias Queta also factored into larger lineups before closed the Celtics’ comeback attempt against the Pacers as the team’s lone center.
Hauser averaged 7.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game in his two appearances this season so far, shooting 37.5% from the field and 27.3% from three. He’ll continue treating his back with ice and other treatments.
“It’s not trying to find (a second unit). We have it,” Joe Mazzulla said earlier this week. “The second unit is the whole bench. We’re not trying to find it … it’s going to look different every night … it’s that group of the Neemy, the Jordan, the Luke, the X. As you saw, we sent X to the table, they changed their sub pattern, we brought Luke to the table or vice versa. It’s just a credit to them. They have a humility and a professionalism to always be ready. We’re just always gonna do what makes sense at that particular time.”
