The Celtics looked like they were on a different level Sunday night despite playing without three starters in a blowout win over the Wizards. It was the fifth straight victory for the visitors as they inch closer to locking up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for good. Despite an easy win, the news wasn’t all good for Boston out of Washington DC. Amid a career night with 30 points, Sam Hauser suffered a sprained ankle early in the fourth quarter, ending his night prematurely. The sharpshooter (10-of-13 from 3-point range) will get additional testing done on the injury in the coming days.
“I know he was doing like a just an x-ray after the game,” Joe Mazzulla told reporters in Washington. “So we’ll find out, precautionary x-ray was what they said.”
Hauser still managed to make some NBA history by hitting 10 3s in just 23 minutes during the victory but his value to Boston should not be shortchanged. The third-year forward has knocked down 43 percent of his 3-point attempts this year while being a reliable weapon off the bench for Joe Mazzulla on a night-in and night-out basis. The effort earned high praise from his coach.
“Yeah, it was great,” Mazzulla said. “I loved his confidence, loved his aggressiveness, loved how guys look for him and I love how he got his shots within the flow of our execution. And that’s the weapon that he is, his ability to just put two on the ball, his ability to create open shots for himself and for other people, so it was fun to watch him shoot him. It was fun to watch his guys look for him.”
Hauser’s also been as durable of a player as Boston has had during the last two years suiting up for 80 games last year while missing just one contest this season before Sunday’s sprained ankle. Even if Hauser’s sprained ankle is severe, he will still have a month to recover ahead of any postseason action. However, Sunday’s game was a crucial reminder for Boston that the team needs to proceed cautiously with their rotation even with extremely durable players like Jayson Tatum, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard moving forward.
Every single game Boston is playing during the regular season in April (and perhaps far sooner) will be meaningless in the standings in all likelihood. The Celtics aren’t going to sit guys for all those contests obviously as they try to stay sharp ahead of the postseason but injuries look like the biggest obstacle towards getting to the NBA Finals right now in the Eastern Conference.
That fact should lead to an extra level of caution by Joe Mazzulla in the next few weeks. Tatum may hate to sit games but he’s going to have to sit down for a few. Blowouts against inferior opponents should lead to entire quarters and halves off, even for bench rotation players. Payton Pritchard had to play 35 minutes off the bench in a rout Sunday night simply because the team didn’t have enough other healthy guards to fill up the bench. The team is wisely being careful with backup bigs like Xavier Tillman and Luke Kornet with their importance increase in the midst of Porzingis’ injury recovery but it’s time to start protecting the bench rotation players too. Get Jordan Walsh in uniform for blowouts and perhaps more of the two-way guys too.
With 15 games remaining, the Celtics won’t be able to avoid all possible risks when it comes to injuries. However, the team should do everything they can to ensure no one gets hurt in what’s soon to be meaningless basketball for this group.
