Celtics Win Without Sam Hauser as Double Big Beats Wizards

WASHINGTON — Sam Hauser woke up with a sore back and the Celtics faced their first depth test of 2025. The most versatile team in the league replaced him with a big man.

“It might not necessarily be a wing,” Joe Mazzulla teased before the game. “It could be a guard, it could be a big. It just depends on what the matchups are in those second units. It’ll change from game-to-game, it’ll change within the game. We changed sub patterns during the game in the 1st quarter (vs. NYK) and did a good job adapting. I have trust in whoever we call…it’s gotta be everybody, by committee depending on what the game needs.”

Mazzulla returned to the podium after Boston pulled away by as many as 32 points following an early scare, beating the Wizards 122-102 behind everybody, he stressed again. By that, he meant all the bigs, Neemias Queta joined the rotation in place of Hauser as Boston rotated double-big combinations that struggled early with Washington’s speed before generating 13 offensive rebounds, close shot attempt totals and 17 threes. Queta scored 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting, grabbed seven boards while fouling four times.

The rotation adjustment he mentioned from the New York game came when Xavier Tillman Sr. nearly checked into opening night as the first big following Al Horford. Seeing Karl-Anthony Towns check out in favor of Jericho Sims, Luke Kornet ran to the table and replaced Tillman Sr., who later played alongside Horford in rotation. They posted a +45.5 net rating through their first 12 minutes, Horford and Kornet went +72.7 in five and Tillman logged nine with Queta to post a +36.8. The Kornet-Tillman and Queta-Horford minutes have been losing ones early on.

The Celtics called their first timeout and prepared to shift into their second unit minutes later with the Wizards out-shooting them 8-3 in attempts behind the three-point line, and 13-10 overall. Jrue Holiday and Horford, who started again, gave the ball away while allowing three Wizards offensive rebounds through the early possessions. Jordan Poole started 5-of-6 from three and put Boston in an early eight-point hole.

A Joe Mazzulla timeout short of the seven-minute mandatory didn’t immediately settle them, a chance for the 2025 team to show the same propensity to shake out of its bad stretches as the championship group. But after Bilal Coulibaly and Kyle Kuzma picked up early stops on Jayson Tatum driving to the rim, Tillman Sr. hit a three playing with Kornet before Payton Pritchard poured in another pull within 24-20.

Derrick White hit a three, improving to 10-of-17 (58.9%) from deep to start the year, hitting them in droves on Thursday alongside Tatum while forcing a pair of turnovers on rookie Bub Carrington to speed up the Celtics’ transition game. Boston looked slower than the Wizards at first in their larger lineups, but Tatum led them to the free throw line three times in a row to close the first quarter with a 33-32 lead.

“I expected a little bit, because of coming off such a high, that the emotion was going to take us a little to settle in,” Mazzulla said. “You add in the speed of Washington, playing in their first game of the season … it took us a little while to get acclimated to the speed of the game … you can combat speed in different ways. We had some small lineups where, especially late in the second half … we combated speed with our physicality and our connectivity and making plays. When we went double-big, our ability to protect the rim, make multiple efforts and be physical in the offensive end. Those guys did a great job fighting for spacing. That’s the key for those guys.”

Mazzulla forecasted that Queta would be the next man up, pulling him aside at the final practice before Tuesday’s opener alongside the other bench players unlikely to receive minutes in the opener. He reminded them that could change, and stressed to Queta in particular how he won three games last winter when multiple Boston bigs missed time. Queta joined Horford into the second quarter rotation and scored twice in 16 seconds at the rim. Kuzma attacked him at the other end with a post pivot move and hook shot before bumping him out of the way going downhill.

Tatum returned after a rest stint to start the second with a pair of passes that led to baskets by Kornet inside and White on the perimeter. Then, he hit three straight pull-up threes. Brown attacked the basket twice for finishes and sent the Celtics into halftime ahead by 10 points.

Brown kept scoring, White kept shooting and Tatum kept passing as the lead mounted to 15 midway through the third quarter. Pritchard hit two more threes to shake off his 1-for-10 opening night. Kornet rolled for a basket before exiting with four fouls in favor of Tillman Sr. and Queta, who put back a three-point miss by Pritchard before flashing in the lane and forcing Coulibaly to throw the ball to Brown, leading him in transition to set up Tillman Sr. for a running layup. Horford went scoreless, Kornet scored four and Tillman reached eight.

“Obviously, it’s not Sam Hauser running around out there,” White said. “But there are a lot of different ways to create advantages and I thought all the bigs did a great job for us today … (Queta) seems to get every offensive rebound. Just a big body around the rim. I think he’s a little more comfortable, a little more sure of himself, knowing where to be on offense. I think last year, he was maybe thinking too much, but this year, he’s just playing, doing what he do.”