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Welcome back to Court Sense ☘️ A newsletter that is committed to shooting through it
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How was your Thursday? Was it better than Sam Hauser's?
The Celtics' hot streak came to a screeching halt in Milwaukee on Thursday, as Boston went unfathomably cold in the second half of its first defeat in nearly two weeks.
After taking out contenders left and right and winning 10 of their last 12, it was fitting the Celtics fell to the shorthanded Bucks, who had lost 10 of their last 12 and were without superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Boston took a 67-60 lead into halftime and then completely fell apart, particularly from deep. The Celtics missed their first 3-point attempt of the second half, then their second, then their third, then missed 13 more to start the half 0 for 16 from downtown.
If you didn't see the third quarter of this game, I'm not sure I can do justice to how bad it was, but hopefully a few numbers will help put it in perspective.
The Celtics were outscored 27-13 to turn a 7-point lead into a 7-point deficit; those 13 points are a season-low for Boston in a single quarter. The Celtics shot 18 percent from the field, also a season-low in a single quarter; and they went 0 for 12 from 3-point range, matching the worst quarter in franchise history.
They couldn't have been colder. It was a beautiful piece of comedic timing, then, when NBC Sports Boston cut to a message from its sister station, NBC 10 Boston, to tease a postgame weather report detailing the freezing weekend ahead in New England in the middle of the third quarter.
You know when you're dreaming and nothing's going right? You have to run but your legs can't move? The performance of basic tasks seems to elude you?
That's kind of what Thursday night was for Hauser, who would probably like this evening flushed from his memory as soon as possible.
You can sum up his night with one truly nightmarish possession in the fourth. Some excellent ball movement freed Hauser up for a wide-open 3-pointer from the wing, which he bricked. Neemias Queta snagged the offensive rebound and returned it to Hauser, who pulled up from deep and missed again. Jordan Walsh grabbed another board and Payton Pritchard found Hauser for a point-blank, wide-open, uncontested layup ... which he missed.
To quote Walsh postgame: "Yeesh."
I don't want to pile on Hauser, who I'm hoping got plenty of hugs from family back home in his native Wisconsin. His final stat line: 22 minutes, 0 points, 0 of 10 from the field, 0 of 9 from deep.
Basketball Reference has a neat little stat called "game score," which seeks to distill a stat line into one score (a little like passer rating in football). It's an imperfect stat, but an occasionally useful one.
Hauser's game score of minus-5.9 is not only the worst of his career, but the worst of any Celtic over the last five seasons. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night for Boston's sharpshooter, who was anything but on Thursday.
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Nothing went right for the Celtics on Thursday. (AP)
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Celtics announcers Drew Carter and Brian Scalabrine (who, I thought, were really the highlight of the broadcast) couldn't help but laugh as the evening wore on. What else are you supposed to do when Kyle Kuzma — Kyle Kuzma! — is hitting spinning skyhooks over Queta?
Kuzma had 31 points. Kevin Porter Jr. had 18 and a triple-double. Bobby Portis, a fine-enough role player off the bench, had 27 points and couldn't miss if he tried, shooting 11 of 13 from the field and 5 of 6 from deep. Drew and Scal just resorted to chuckles and suggesting a box-and-one on Portis.
It really was a "laugh so you don't cry" sort of night.
Whether it's a performance that worries you or a random blip is up to you. There aren't going to be a ton of nights where the Celtics shoot 26.1 percent from the field and 11.5 percent from deep in the second half. There also aren't going to be a ton of nights where their opponents shoot 62.9 percent from the field and 58.3 percent from deep in the second half.
Weird nights happen. As Jaylen Brown put it postgame, sometimes Kyle Kuzma, Bobby Portis, and Kevin Porter Jr. are going to look like Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James.
And, unfortunately, sometimes Sam Hauser is going to look like me. You just have to hope those nights are very few and very far between.
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Jayson Tatum has been a presence for the Celtics all season despite recovering from a torn Achilles. (Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff)
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Celtics remain mum on a potential return by Jayson Tatum this season
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When Celtics players break off for individual workouts following practice, Jayson Tatum occupies one of the halfcourts with three coaches, working on his post game with Amir Jefferson, providing defense, or taking passes from Sam Cassell and swishing 3-pointers.
These workouts have become normal for Tatum in the past several weeks, leading to the question about a potential return from a torn Achilles tendon this season. On Friday, it will be seven months since the injury and Tatum has been on the floor for the past few months, releasing workout videos on social media, and getting work in when the Celtics complete practice.
Tatum stated several weeks ago that his plan was to return this season and there are two current NBA players who have returned from a torn Achilles in less than a year.
The team, however, remains non-committal.
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Other top stories we're watching ...
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The Joe Mazzulla Quote of the Week
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Congratulations to Magic guard Desmond Bane, once a Celtics first-round pick and now a first-time winner of the Joe Mazzulla Quote of the Week.
This really just gives me an opportunity to talk my favorite silly NBA incident of the week, which took place during a game between the Magic and Knicks.
You know how sometimes a player is falling out of bounds while holding the ball, so they throw it off the opponent to try to retain possession? Bane did that to the Knicks' OG Anunoby on Sunday, except Bane was not falling out of bounds at all, Anunoby was just laying on the ground out of bounds, and Bane just fired the ball at his downed opponent for no discernible reason whatsoever.
Anunoby was not pleased about this, though he seemed more confused than upset about the incident. There's a wonderful lip-reading breakdown of the whole kerfuffle that I really enjoyed.
Anyway, Bane got a technical foul for his troubles and a fine from the NBA. After the Magic advanced to the NBA Cup semifinals on Tuesday (with a cash prize involved), Bane had this to say:
"It's huge, man. I mean, I just lost $35,000, so, I've got to go get it back somehow!"
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