Celtics player apologizes for failure to set three-point record

The Celtics tied the Bucks' record for most threes in a game (29) with 8:54 left in the fourth quarter of their 132-109 rout of the Knicks on Tuesday. At the time, they had gone 29-of-48 (60.4 percent) from deep.

Thereafter, Boston missed 13 consecutive shots from three, failing to set the new record. Among those misses, Payton Prichard missed five, Sam Houser four, Xavier Tillman two, and Jaylen Brown and Jordan Walsh one each. The misses didn't matter in the grander scheme of things as the C's were up 126-93 when Al Horford made the record-tying 29th three. 

After the game, Hauser, who went 2-of-7 for the game from three, apologized to the Celtics fanbase for his team bricking a series of long-range shots in the fourth quarter. 

"We tried our best, man," Hauser told NBC Sports Boston of the team pursuing the record. "We missed like 15 [13] in a row, but we were taking great shots. Ball was moving, finding the right guy. We just couldn't get it to go. So, sorry about that, Boston!"

While it was gracious of Hauser to apologize, no Celtics fan woke Wednesday feeling anything less than jubilant about the team's chances to repeat as NBA champions. Boston showed why it is the best team in the NBA and the definitive title favorite.

Meanwhile, Brown admitted that his team was actively trying to set the new benchmark for most threes in an NBA game. 

"It was almost like we got jinxed or something," the 2024 NBA Finals MVP told the media, via NBA.com. "When we were just playing, having fun, playing our style of basketball, everything was going in. The crowd got into it, and we started hunting them, we couldn’t even hit the bright side of the barn."

For context, the Bucks shot 56.9 percent (29-of-51) from beyond the arc when they set the record against the Heat on Dec. 29, 2020. Despite the Celtics missing 13 consecutive shots on Tuesday, they still finished with an impressive 47.5 percent (29-of-61) in their record-tying effort.