Gordon Hayward took part in the Celtics' shootaround on Monday morning and all signs continue to point to his return to the court on Monday night against the Cavs.
"He went through everything today," Brad Stevens said. "Meeting with our trainers now. Walked through with the intention of playing, but we’ll see what happens out of that meeting."
Hayward is officially listed as questionable for the contest but all has been building up his workouts over the past week after his left hand was cleared for contact by team doctors.
While much has been made about the potential challenge of bringing Hayward back into the fold after a 12-game absence, Kemba Walker doesn't believe there is any cause for concern.
"Gordon is so smart and knows how to play the game, so easy to play with. I don't think there will be any challenges," Walker said. "I think he's going to come in and do as well as he did before he got hurt."
Hayward was phenomenal over his first eight games of the season, averaging 18.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, while shooting 43.3 percent from 3. While he may not be able to match that kind of production out of the gate with a full complement of wings around him, Walker spoke about his importance after the team saw a sharp dropoff in offensive production without him over the past month.
"I'm excited," Walker explained. "I'm ecstatic and happy for him. He was playing really well before he got hurt and of course, we need him. He is one of our best players. He's a starter for us and averaging 20 points. That's 20 points that we were missing. It will be great to get him back for sure."
"He’s just a good player," Brad Stevens added. "He has a real feel for the game on both ends. One of the things about our defense that I think has made our defense, when we’ve played our best, is our ability to cover one another when people are in tough spots. He can read those situations well and he’s a good communicator. He’s played a lot of basketball in his life. It’s always good to get good players back. We’re hopeful that he’ll play tonight."
The question now that Hayward has to answer is whether his hands feels strong enough to overcome the lingering pain and soreness that will be prevalent during his recovery. That's a question that Walker wants him to proceed carefully with.
"I think right now at this point, it's up to him," Walker said. "How confident he feels while being out there and playing through contract. Obviously, it's tough for us to do too much contact but I think he's been playing with some of the guys and I think he's really comfortable. He's been doing well with his rehab and he pretty much attacked it as well as he can. I think it's up to him at this point."
Other news and notes from shootaround
- The Celtics may not be back at full strength anyway even if Hayward is back on the floor. Rob Williams has been ruled out with a sore hip and Marcus Smart is questionable due to an eye infection. An update on Smart will be available pregame. "I think it started yesterday," Stevens said. "He said it started, he got some drops yesterday but he came in today and his eye is red so he did not go through shootaround and he’ll be a game-time decision."
- The C's got some good injury news on their rookies though as Romeo Langford went through some of shootaround and could be cleared to play after suffering a sprained ankle later this week. The same goes for Tacko Fall, who is recovering from a bruised knee.
- Brad Stevens on facing the Cavs, who have lost six straight and 12 of 13 overall: "I’ve always said, you don’t play teams what they did last, you don’t play teams with what they’ve done in the last few weeks, you play teams what they are capable of. We saw it a couple months ago when we played there, a month and a half ago, that was a one-possession game with 30 seconds left and they probably don’t think they played their best. They’ve got really good guards that go downhill and their two forwards/centers with Love and Thompson are champions. We know coming off the week that they’ve had they’re going to be hungry to play and antsy to play. That’s just going to make an even bigger challenge."