To put it bluntly, Gordon Hayward’s play has been one of the recurring issues for the Boston Celtics the majority of the season. It’s been apparent to opposing teams. Based on his experience, Oklahoma City’s Paul George believes it’s because Hayward is still building himself up from his gruesome injury and he will likely get back to the player he used to be. George may be right, but the fact of the matter remains Hayward is not the guy Boston needs him to be right now
That is, he hasn’t been until Saturday night, despite the Celtics taking the loss in a 123-112 stunner.
Now, the only place Hayward has found something close to consistent success this year is against teams playing sub-.500 basketball.
The Clippers entered the game 30-26, making them the type of team Hayward would normally struggle against. But with the moves at the deadline, the Clippers aren’t exactly the same team that’s won over half its games. The way things were looking, Boston was going to beat them as bad they have anyone in 2018-19.
Things didn’t exactly end as expected, at least not for the Celtics. That all led to some serious comments from Marcus Morris—who played his normal, reliable game, as did Kyrie Irving before leaving with a sprained right knee.
While there’s no moral victory in this game, there can be positives to pull from it—the only one being signs of promise from Hayward on the offensive end. He finished the night 6 for 11 from the floor, 2 for 3 from deep, 5 for 6 from the line, good for 19 points. He also had five rebounds and three assists.
But in looking further at his shooting, seven of his points came in the fourth quarter, when Boston was reeling. He scored over 25 percent of the Celtics’ points in that quarter and did so on 3 of 3 shooting, 1 for 1 from deep—the one three coming late to bring the Celtics within one at 106-105, only to have Danilo Gallinari clap back with a three of his own 20 seconds later.
In fact, Hayward scored five of his seven fourth quarter points in the final four minutes of the game. The Celtics only scored five addition points in that same time frame.
Whether or not it’s against the worst team in the NBA or the Golden State Warriors, if the score is close in the closing minutes of the game, players are prone to tightening up. Thus the importance of a “closer.” For someone who’s been passive much of the year, a night like this could be what Hayward needs to at least boost his confidence—again, looking at his personal performance in a vacuum, ignoring the inexcusable loss.
