Key Celtics reserve returns vs. Pacers after three-game absence

The Celtics will have their full bench available for Wednesday night’s Eastern Conference finals rematch.

Sharpshooting wing Sam Hauser will be active against the Indiana Pacers, the team announced, after he sat out the last three games with lower back tightness.

Hauser, one of head coach Joe Mazzulla’s top reserves, missed just three games all of last season and two during the 2022-23 campaign. The 26-year-old played 24 minutes in Boston’s season opener last Tuesday, notching 10 points and five rebounds in a rout of the New York Knicks.

Payton Pritchard carried the Celtics’ bench from an offensive perspective during Hauser’s absence, scoring 15, 19 and 28 points while shooting an incredible 62.1% from 3-point range (18 of 29). Over Boston’s last two games, every other Celtics reserve combined for just five total points (three by Xavier Tillman, two by Jordan Walsh).

Walsh stepped into the Hauser role Monday against the Milwaukee Bucks and earned praise for his work as an energetic defender and rebounder in Boston’s 119-108 win at TD Garden. The second-year pro’s uptick in playing time was the third different strategy Boston employed to replace Hauser. Mazzulla utilized reserve center Neemias Queta in the first game Hauser missed, then tightened his rotation in the second, playing just eight players.

The 4-0 Celtics, who also have been without rehabbing big man Kristaps Porzingis, entered Wednesday as one of just three remaining undefeated teams in the NBA, along with the 4-0 Cleveland Cavaliers and the 3-0 Oklahoma City Thunder.

Pacers starting center Myles Turner was ruled out for Wednesday night’s game with a knee injury.