Sam Hauser Hits Seven Threes in a Quarter, Scores Career-High 33 Points

Welcome to the 30-point club, Sam Hauser.

With franchise player Jayson Tatum out with an injury, former Virginia basketball star Sam Hauser stepped into the starting lineup and delivered the best performance of his four-year NBA career, scoring a career-high 33 points to lead the Boston Celtics to a 114-108 victory over the Utah Jazz on Monday night at TD Garden.

Hauser erupted in the third quarter, knocking down a franchise record seven three-pointers in that period alone to help the C's build a 21-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. The visiting Jazz clawed back into the game, tying the score at 103-103 with three minutes remaining, but Hauser hit another big three to push the Boston lead back to 112-104 with a 1:20 left on the clock, a dagger that sealed the win for the Celtics, who were without Tatum, Al Horford, and Kristaps Porzingis.

Watch the highlights from Hauser's performance in the video below.

Hauser became the 20th player in NBA history to make seven three-pointers in a single quarter, but he is also the fourth Celtic this season to make nine threes in a game, joining Tatum, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard. This is the first time in the history of the NBA that one team has had four players accomplish that feat in a season.

“Running in transition and trying to find a window, these guys were looking for me. I was just trying to make that decision pay off,” Hauser said after the game. “Sometimes when you get in a flow, every shot you take feels like it’s going in.”

Hauser had only one game this season where he reached even 20 points before Monday night's game. His previous career-high was actually back-to-back 26 point performances against the Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks on April 7th and April 9th 2023.

“It wasn’t like we were going out of our way to get him the ball. He has an innate ability to find the ball and create advantages,” said Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla. “The guys did a great job of finding him once he got hot. There’s no shot that he shoots that we think is a bad shot.”

Hauser is the fourth former Virginia basketball player to score 30 or more points in an NBA game this season, joining Ty Jerome, who scored 33 points on January 24th, De'Andre Hunter, who has gone for 30+ twice this season, and Trey Murphy III, who has seven 30-point games this season, including two games with 40+ points.

For those wondering about some other former Wahoos in the league: Malcolm Brogdon's season-high is 29 points this season for the Wizards, Jay Huff has scored 20 points in a game for the Memphis Grizzlies, and Ryan Dunn has gone for 18 points in his rookie season with the Phoenix Suns.

Sam Hauser's standout performance helped the reigning NBA Champion Boston Celtics improve to 47-18 on the season, good for second place in the Eastern Conference, trailing De'Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome's Cleveland Cavaliers by 7.5 games in the East.

Read More on Former UVA Athletes in the Pros