SACRAMENTO -- In a season full of turmoil, Gordon Hayward and his uneven path of recovery has been one of the biggest shadows to loom over this Celtics squad. The lows have outnumbered the highs in the midst of his 82-game grind, as the swingman comes to terms with his own capabilities in the wake of a horrific leg injury last year.
For months upon months, Brad Stevens has fielded questions about Hayward’s progression back towards his former self, yet on Wednesday night at Golden 1 Center, he decided he had talked enough on that front after watching Hayward hit a game-winner runner to finish off the Kings for a hard-fought 111-109 victory.
“I mean, he should have plenty of confidence,” Stevens said when asked about Hayward’s psyche following the win. “He’s a heck of a player and we all believe in him. So I’ll probably stop talking about working his way back and just call him Gordon and try to help move forward here, because he’s obviously played great these two nights, and these are two really good wins, really hard wins.”
It was a simple pronouncement by Stevens but a noteworthy one that is indicative of the timing and urgency left for this squad in the regular season. Hayward is not the player he once was, but the Celtics can’t afford to give him or anyone else special treatment during this campaign anymore. Hayward is no longer an All-Star on a nightly basis but he can still be an effective role player in his current form and that’s what the Celtics are going to need to succeed regularly heading into the postseason. When he can chip in, good things generally happen, as evidenced by their 20-4 record when Hayward scores 12 or more points in a game.
Bouncing back from adversity is not something Hayward and these Celtics have particularly done well this season, yet the final three minutes of the game set the stage for them to punch back as they pulled off back-to-back road wins against above .500 opponents for the first time all year. Fittingly, Hayward’s final two points of the night got him to the 12-point mark.
Hayward’s rollercoaster ride in the final 10 seconds will be the main focus after this one, but he was just one of several players that responded with big plays when things didn’t go their way. He foolishly fouled Buddy Hield on a 3-point attempt with nine seconds remaining, which allowed Hield to tie the game from the charity stripe with three free throws. With no Kyrie Irving (out with bruised quad) to turn to down the stretch and no timeouts to draw up a play, the pressure was on the Celtics to improvise after blowing a six-point lead in the final three minutes.
“We were just going to give Terry or Gordon a run at it, length of the floor, they’re both good going length of the floor,” Stevens explained of Boston’s final possession. “Gordon made a nice play obviously. Got to his left hand, he’s been hitting that pretty regularly on a night where he didn’t shoot it great, that was obviously a huge, big shot for us.”
A closer look at the finish by Hayward shows a tough shot that was well contested by Hield. On a night when Hayward looked sharp while going to the hoop (6-of-7 inside the arc), Hayward showed some of the aggressiveness that made him such a dynamic weapon in Utah. He’s been looking to pass first a lot in Boston as he adjusts to his limitations but that mentality shifted with the game on the line to making the right play for his team.
CLUTCH HAYWARD (@AAANe_MAnews) #AAANortheast pic.twitter.com/KlL9j7dyrL
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) March 7, 2019
That hustle from Morris Sr. ??? (@AAANe_MAnews) #AAANortheast
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— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) March 7, 2019