Enes Kanter making most of opportunity, Sam Hauser makes rookie mistake in debut

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2021/11/celtics-notebook-enes-kanter-making-most-of-opportunity-sam-hauser-makes-rookie-mistake-in-debut.html



Celtics Notebook: Enes Kanter making most of opportunity, Sam Hauser makes rookie mistake in debut



Updated: Nov. 21, 2021, 6:15 a.m. | Published: Nov. 21, 2021, 6:15 a.m.




Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter (13) looks on during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)AP


By Brian Robb | brobb@masslive.com



Enes Kanter was the odd man out of Ime Udoka’s rotation for the first 13 games of the Celtics season, appearing for a total of just 10 minutes in that stretch. Amid Kanter’s activism off the court and a complaint by the veteran on social media about his lack of playing time, Udoka made it clear that the lack of opportunity was strictly basketball-related.

“I’ve talked to Enes about the reasons he’s not playing as much in some of the things we’re doing, defensively, in areas for him to improve on,” Udoka said last week. “My thing is strictly basketball. We’re switching a lot and doing some things that probably are not as natural for him and that’s limited his time to some extent. But, at the same time, it’s not just a result of what he’s not doing. It’s other guys are doing it well.


“And we have Al and Rob, who are kind of staggering there. And then, to my point, Juancho, Payton, Jabari at times, we’ve got a lot of guys that are qualified and want to play and they’re competitive so they’re getting antsy, you want to find them minutes but other guys are playing well and, to Enes’ point, it’s strictly basketball.”

In the past week since Kanter’s comments, an opportunity has come knocking on his door due to Robert Williams’ knee injury. With the Celtics struggling to get any kind of offensive consistency from their second unit and small ball centers like Jabari Parker not providing much of a return, Udoka decided it was time to give Kanter a chance, starting in the second half against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday.

Since then? Kanter has appeared in four straight games, capped by Saturday’s double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds in just 17 minutes) in Boston’s 111-105 win over the Thunder. Kanter provided nearly all the scoring for the Celtics’ second unit (18 total bench points in the win) and even provided some timely defense (two blocks) which allowed Udoka to keep Al Horford’s minutes down.

With Rob Williams set to return sometime next week from a knee injury, it will be intriguing to see whether Kanter has done enough to earn spot rotation minutes with Grant Williams returning to bench duty. The team has a +8.5 net rating over his last 52 minutes with his screening and offensive rebounding helping provide some easy offense for his floormates.

There are undoubtedly some guard matchups that the Udoka will want to protect Kanter from on the defensive end but against middling teams like the Thunder, the big man can provide some reliable production on the glass.


Sam Hauser’s debut includes rookie mistake

With the Celtics leading by 11 points and 50 seconds remaining in Saturday’s contest against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Ime Udoka felt confident enough to pull all of his starters and give the end of his bench some run. The reserves that took the floor included two-way player Sam Hauser who has been tremendous for the Maine Celtics in the G-League so far in six games, averaging 18.1 ppg with 47.3 percent shooting from 3-point range.

Saturday’s call-up to the active roster for Hauser marked his NBA debut and he did what most sharpshooters would do in their NBA debut: Trying to score his first points from 3-point range.

However, the 23-year-old rookie got a bit too ambitious with that goal upon his entrance into the game. Oklahoma City quickly cut Boston’s lead from 12 to nine after a free throw and a tip-in on an offensive rebound, making it a three-possession game when the Celtics got the ball back.


After Boston got the ball up the court against a full court press, Hauser found himself with a wide-open shot from 3-point range with 43 seconds left in the game. The problem? There were still 16 seconds left on the shot clock in a three-possession game that wasn’t officially out of reach yet for the Thunder if a lot of things went right for the visitors. Some of those things happened in the next 30 seconds as a Hauser miss led to a Thunder layup. That was followed by a Celtics turnover and a Thunder transition 3, as the visitors cut a 12-point lead to four in just 40 seconds, forcing Ime Udoka to bring back the starters to seal the game for Boston.

Hauser wasn’t to blame for a long list of miscues but the odds are quite strong the Thunder wouldn’t have made it so close if he decided to run some more clock and shorten the game instead of chasing his first NBA points in a game that was still in doubt. It was a lesson the eager rookie will likely remember as his debut ended after just 40 seconds.

‘We got a little sloppy, took our foot off the gas a little bit,” Udoka said of the fourth quarter. “A credit to them that they’re playing hard - especially in that last minute when we got subs in. Just a learning experience for our young guys.”


Bob
MY NOTE: It's hard for a shooter not to shoot. Hauser's a shooter and, by Robb's own admission, it was a wide-open shot for Hauser. All's well that ends well, as the Bard once said, and I wouldn't make much ado about nothing.


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