Gordon Hayward scored a combined 36 points in his previous five games (on 12-of-35 FG) before a season-high 35-point outburst against the Timberwolves on Wednesday night, and the timing of the performance couldn’t have been much better from a Celtics’ perspective.
Offense was going to be in high demand against the Timberwolves with Kyrie Irving sidelined and Al Horford limited to just 25 minutes of defense on Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns got his (28 points), Andrew Wiggins (32 points) played up to his offensive potential for one rare night but Hayward’s hot shooting (14-of-18 FG) was enough to carry Boston’s offense to a much-needed 115-102 win at the TD Garden.
Before Wednesday night, the concern level about Hayward had rightfully risen steadily over the past month as the 28-year-old had cracked double-digits in just four games during the month of December after posting a season-high 30 points against the Wolves back on December 1st.
The open shots have been there but the makes have been hard to string together as Hayward managed to shoot 37 percent from the field last month while managing just 10.4 ppg. On the whole, his production had taken a step back since November, a concerning situation for a team already underachieving in the win-loss column.
The Celtics expected they would have to carry Hayward through some re-adjustment pains during the early months of the season as he tries to regain his old form, but it's fair to say everyone thought the process would be a little further along by now, particularly after last month's 30-point binge.
We got a glimpse of that guy yet again on Wednesday night, but what can we honestly take out of a 35-point performance against a Wolves team that was without three of its top six rotation players (Derrick Rose, Jeff Teague, Robert Covington)? Let’s take a closer look at Hayward’s performance to figure out what kind of progress there was against what was a pretty woeful defensive performance against an underachieving Western Conference squad.
Regressing to the mean with 3-point shooting
Hayward entered the night shooting 31 percent from 3-point range, which was approaching his career-low (30.4 percent in 2014-15). While Boston fans likely expected Hayward to be an elite shooter from beyond the arc, his 3-point accuracy over the course of his career has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, peaking his rookie year with 47 percent (just one attempt per game) before falling off the most in his fourth season (30 percent). The end result has been a slightly above average career mark (36 percent) but that comes largely with an inferior offensive supporting cast in Utah (i.e. tougher looks).
In Boston, Hayward has been getting plenty of wide open looks and has been very disciplined in only taking good ones. Unlike some other members of the roster, shot selection is not a problem for the former All-Star, he just hasn’t been hitting them consistently. He’s knocking down just 34 percent of his wide-open 3s this year (7th on team) and just 25 percent of his open 3s (defender within 4-6 feet). That’s 10th among rotation players on the roster.
On Wednesday night, not much changed against the Wolves with his shot selection, he just began to hit some. Hayward took seven open 3s and knocked down four of them. After a scoreless night against the Spurs on Monday night in which he was 0-of-5 from 3, some extra work may have helped matters.
"He’s going to make a lot of shots, because he’s got a lot due,” Brad Stevens said after the win. “You know, he was disappointed in how he shot the ball, obviously, in San Antonio, and got back in the gym this morning. And you could tell he was going to play pretty well; I mean, 14-for-18’s an unbelievable night and you’re not always going to shoot it like that. But you could tell he was pretty locked in and was going to play well.”
The Celtics clearly need Hayward to make these shots consistently to become a more potent offense, but this is an area in which some bounceback should continue with his averages. He’s getting far better looks than ever, so they should start paying off. If he can start making pull-ups like these against bigger defenders in switches, that should make Boston even tougher to defend.
Gordon Hayward can't miss! pic.twitter.com/VNFsf3dbAE
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 3, 2019
Hayward gets the jam after Horford finds him cutting to the rim! pic.twitter.com/rXuqqqg6QW
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 3, 2019
??? pic.twitter.com/MpiflYC88d
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 3, 2019
Gordon keeps it going with the lefty finish! ? pic.twitter.com/Ce6HoICmTz
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 3, 2019
Hayward's cookin' ?? pic.twitter.com/2E5XiJRQt4
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 3, 2019
Gordon Hayward is a bad, bad man. pic.twitter.com/uAs22iuyXJ
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 3, 2019
