The Celtics will take on the Wizards on Thursday in the nation’s capital. The visitors will not have Sam Hauser in the lineup due to lower back pain.

Before the match, Joe Mazzulla shared an update on the sharp-shooting striker.

“It’s a daily thing,” the Boston bank boss told CLNS Media. “He’s getting better and better, he’s working on it every day and we’ll see how he develops.”

Fortunately for the Celtics, whose title team is mostly intact and brought back 13 of 15 players on standard deals a season ago, the depth of the reigning NBA champions is a source of strength.

According to NBA.com, Boston’s bench had the highest net rating of any second unit in the 2023-2024 campaign. It ranked in the top 10 in offensive and defensive rating.

“We have the flexibility and depth to go different routes,” Mazzulla said of navigating Hauser’s absence. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be a wing, it could be a guard, it could be a big, it just depends on what the matchups are in those second units.”

The last time Hauser was in Washington, he generated a career-high 30 points in a 130-104 victory. He also made a personal best of 10/13 threes.

The 6-foot-1 sharpshooter became the sixth player in the 2023-24 season to make 10 triples in a game, joining Keegan Murray, Stephen Curry, Trey Murphy, Karl Anthony-Towns and Bogdan Bogdanovic.

Hauser was on pace to break Marcus Smart’s franchise record of 11 goals from behind the arc and had his sights set on Klay Thompson’s NBA-best 14 threes in a single game.

Unfortunately, he stepped on someone’s foot on the Wizards’ bench in the third frame, resulting in a left ankle sprain that sidelined him for the rest of the game.

Just as the Celtics being without Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Kristaps Porzingis in that game allowed Hauser to step up in a senior role, the latter’s absence on Thursday creates opportunities for his teammates further down the rotation .

“What the subpattern is will change from game to game. It will change within the game,” Mazzulla said. “We changed sub-patterns during the game in the first quarter of the previous game (a 132-109 win against the Knicks) and adjusted well.

“I have confidence in whoever we call that they’re ready to play just because of the work they put in and the things they do. So it has to be everyone on the committee depending on what the game needs at the time. time.”