On a night where Jaylen Brown scored 41 points, it was Sam Hauser who stole the show. He scored 30 points making 10 three pointers, including 8 of his first 9 looks. The Celtics smoked the Hawks 132-106 as the Celtics advance to 26-15 at the midway point of the season.
The Celtics were without Jayson Tatum, Payton Pritchard, Josh Minott and Chris Boucher. They started Derrick White, Baylor Scheierman, Sam Hauser, Jaylen Brown and Neemias Queta. The Hawks were without Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Kristaps Porzingis and N’Faly Dante. They started C.J. McCollum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Vit Krecji, Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Onongwu.
This was the Hawks first game back home after a 4 game west coast swing. Those are always tough, if you remember the Celtics were 0-5 in the first game back coming off of long road trips last season.
It was 14-11 at the second timeout. Jaylen Brown took 8 of the first 14 Celtics shots, making 3 of them for 6 points. Joe Mazzulla came out of that timeout with 4 new players surrounding Brown, Anferenee Simons, Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez and Luka Garza.
The Celtics led the Hawks, 30-23 at the end of the first quarter. Jaylen Brown carried the Celtics, scoring 18 points while no else scored more than 3. Brown also had 2 rebounds and 2 assists. He took 13 shots.
It was in the 2nd quarter that the Celtics turned up the heat and it happened from three point range. They outscored the Hawks 37-20 in the first 9:23 of the quarter and were 9/12 from threes.
They did not slow down to end the quarter either, scoring 52 points in the period and 82 in the first half, a new season high. They finished the 2nd quarter 19/25 from the field and 11/15 from three.
Boston led Atlanta by 31 points at halftime, 82-51. Jaylen Brown had 29 points while Sam Hauser had 21 points going 7/8 from three point range.
The Celtics contained the, as NBC Sports Boston’s Drew Carter said, “vintage Mazzulla Ball barrage” in the third quarter, taking a 40 point lead at the 9:20 mark in the 3rd quarter. They hit the 100 point mark with just over 8 minutes to go in the period.
Jaylen Brown hit the 40 point mark in the first three quarters of the game. He had 41 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists through three quarters (he did not play in the 4th). He was 14/30 from the field and 2/9 from three in 29 minutes.
The Celtics led the Hawks 117-74 at the end of three quarters. Hauser had 24 points while Neemias Queta and Anfernee Simons had 14 points each.
The 4th quarter intrigue was whether or not Sam Hauser would break the single game three point record for the Celtics, which is 11 from Marcus Smart in 2020. He did not, he made 10 threes in the game, only making 2 of his last 12 three point attempts.
The Celtics shot 50% from the field and 42% from three while the Hawks shot 37% from the field and 32% from three. Boston’s next game is Monday night in Detroit against the Pistons at 8 EST.
