Just under two months ago, I wrote an article about how the Celtics’ bench wasn’t doing a whole lot. It was early, but shots weren’t falling, and the starters were being relied on for a bulk of Boston’s scoring.
Fast forward 24 games and things have changed quite a bit.
Boston’s starters are still a force to be reckoned with, but now they’re getting some serious contributions from the bench — particularly Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard.
The reserve duo has put together an impressive season so far, despite digging themselves quite the hole at the beginning. Pritchard knocked down just 10% of his long-range attempts in the Celtics’ first three games this year (yes, it was a small sample size), while Hauser sank 20%. Now, the two are shooting 39.4% and 43.3% respectively from beyond the arc.
They’ve entered the elite class of players whom I believe are going to make every single shot they take.
Over the past ten games in particular, it feels like the two have found their stride (even with Hauser hitting a slump over that stretch). Statistically, both guys have impressed with their efficiency. Each has taken about five three-point attempts per game over that stretch. Pritchard has buried 48% of his while Hauser is hovering around 40.4%.
On top of the numbers, the eye test has been an area where there feels to be a difference. As the Celtics have found a rhythm as a team, these two have seemingly inherited more trust from their teammates and shifted into more significant offensive roles.
Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images
Pritchard looked extremely comfortable out there.
It was tough to see him struggle to start the year after ripping off an impressive preseason that had the entire fanbase saying how his four-year, $32 million contract extension was a bargain deal.
Fortunately, Pritchard has been looking like Preseason P quite a bit as of late. He’s cracked double-digits in half of the games over Boston’s 8-2 stretch. That’s more times than he had done it over the course of the rest of the season (4).
The 25-year-old has never been one to play without confidence, but it does feel like he’s unafraid of the moment more than ever.
During Tuesday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors, Pritchard took advantage of just about every opening that the Dubs gave to him.
Even this miss off of a Jrue Holiday dish in transition felt like a good shot because of how on fire No. 11 has been lately.
Later in the game, Pritchard sank a big three to (momentarily) put a halt to Golden State’s push to get back into it. He caught the pass from Hauser and fired up the deep shot without any hesitation.
He even had an opportunity to initiate Boston’s offense early on and got himself a great mid-range look off of a Neemias Queta screen.
Pritchard has done a great job adjusting to playing off of the ball for the majority of his minutes. As someone who has undoubtedly spent the majority of his playing career as the primary ballhandler, it’s impressive to see how comfortable he’s gotten as a catch-and-shoot guy for the Celtics.
His 21-point outburst against the Orlando Magic was a great example of that. Pritchard knocked down 6-of-7 threes and looked like he was being controlled by Peter Griffin as he exploited an NBA Jam glitch.
To Pritchard’s credit, he’s done much more than shoot this season. Even when he was cold to start the 2023-24 campaign, he was still hustling, hitting the glass, and setting up his teammates.
As for Hauser, his season-long three-point shooting has been more impressive than his 40.4% clip over the recent stretch. Despite that, his teammates have remained confident in him and he’s remained a solid option on the offensive end.
His looks don’t feel forced at all and he does a great job relocating without the ball. In the loss to the Warriors, Hauser was a rough 0-for-6 from deep. All six of his long-range attempts were good shots if not great ones.
Watching all of the clips back, I was just as surprised as I was on Tuesday that these looks didn’t drop for the 26-year-old.
Of all of Hauser’s looks at Chase Center, this might’ve been the most questionable. Even so, he was in rhythm coming off of a hand-off and the shot came in the flow of the offense. Can’t complain too much here.
In this one, he got a clean look from the corner after a brilliant pass from Jayson Tatum. There’s no shot that anyone in the gym thought that he wouldn’t find the bottom of the net here.
This play above shows Tatum trying to attack Stephen Curry (who had five fouls) in the post. Hauser does a great job relocating after the initial pass and gets a fantastic chance to make the Warriors pay for leaving him open.
In the three clips below, he misses three consecutive open looks from the same spot on the left wing. All of them were great shots that didn’t disrupt or slow down what the Celtics were trying to do one the offensive end.
In fact, they were a product of great ball movement.
The reason why I chose to include a string of his misses here is to show that even when he’s been off, the Cs not only have confidence in him, but all of his shots feel natural and are pretty great offensive opportunities.
It speaks volumes that four of his six attempts came in the fourth quarter, despite the off night.
Had he buried just one of them (which you always expect him to), Boston would currently be on an eight-game winning streak heading into their Saturday date with the LA Clippers.
In Hauser’s 15-point performance in the In-Season Tournament loss to the Indiana Pacers (his highest of the last 10 games), the majority of his looks were exactly the same as those against the Warriors — some even more difficult.
The shooting resurgence that these two have put together after their rocky start is huge for the ceiling of this team.
It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that their presence makes it easier for Tatum and Jaylen Brown to get looks inside. They put a tremendous strain on opposing defenses because players can’t afford to sag off of them because they’re absolute snipers from distance.
They’ve done a great job at filling the rotation gaps left by the summer exits of Malcolm Brogdon and Grant Williams. Depth was a serious question for this team heading into the season, but Pritchard and Hauser have done more than enough to ensure that Boston’s bench isn’t a liability.
