Sam Houser makes history with 21 3PA, but opens up a big opportunity
On Saturday night, The Boston Celtics continued their victorious ways with a punctured road win over the Atlanta Hawks with a score of 132-106. Incredibly, this game wasn’t nearly as close as the final score suggested, as Atlanta outscored Boston by 17 points in the final frame to extend the deficit to 26.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 41 points, while Sam Hauser scored 30 points on ten three-pointers. On the night, Hauser took 21 shots from behind the arc, becoming the first player in NBA history to take at least 20 three-point attempts and zero two-point attempts in the same game, per Underdog NBA on X, formerly Twitter.
Towards the end of the game, Houser shamelessly took a drive from beyond the arc in an attempt to break the Celtics’ franchise record for three-pointers in a game, which ultimately fell short, much to the chagrin of the Hawks’ commentators who called the game.
After the competition, Hauser became 100% real to his mindset as he looked to break the record.
“At that point it was like, ‘Let’s get them up, let’s see what happens, and then I was dead tired. … I’m glad Joe let me try,'” Houser said, according to Forbes’ Bobby Kriwicki on X.
Overall, it was another strong game for the Celtics, who are now 26-15 on the season and extending their lead over the slumping New York Knicks for the second seed in the Eastern Conference.
Boston’s three-point-heavy philosophy under head coach Joe Mazzula hasn’t changed one bit despite their playoff collapse against the Knicks last year, in which their three-point shooting abandoned them at the worst time and they had no backup option.
Either way, the Celtics next take the court on Monday night on the road against the Detroit Pistons.
2026-01-18 16:23:00
