Final: Celtics 110, Cavs 88 -- Hayward shines in return as C's win fourth straight

The story of the night was Gordon Hayward's return to the Celtics lineup after a 13-game absence to a loud ovation from the Garden crowd as the starters were introduced. Despite not having suited up for a month, Hayward showed no signs of rust over his 26 minutes, stuffing the box score with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists on 7-of-10 shooting from the field as the C's cruised to a 110-88 victory. While he misfired on both of his 3s, Hayward was lethal against an underwhelming Cavs defense in the paint, with a couple of nifty finishes in the paint and some superb navigation of the pick-and-roll to set up his teammates. Any concerns of re-integrating him in with this group will quickly fade after this performance and the Cavs seemed like the perfect opponent for him to come back against.

The C's won their fourth straight game overall and improved to 10-0 at the Garden with the victory. They now face a pair of tough tests later this week with a back-to-back against the Pacers and Sixers beginning on Wednesday night.

TWO UP

Gordon Hayward: No signs of rust from the 30-year-old after a four-week layoff as the former All-Star did a little bit of everything out of the gate, piling up 4 points (2/3 FG), 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal in 14 first-half minutes.

Jaylen Brown: The swingman’s hot shooting stretch continued through the first half as he scored a game-high 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting. His size advantage against Cleveland’s young backcourt allowed him to get to the paint at will.

TWO DOWN

Jayson Tatum: A sloppy performance early on from the 22-year-old, who played it pretty loose against a dismal Cavs team, including an ugly behind the back turnover that earned the ire of Brad Stevens. He shot just 3-of-9 from the field in the opening two quarters.

Enes Kanter’s defense: The bench unit has been a source of energy lately but came out flat in the first half of this one, as Kanter had a target on his back on the defensive end. Despite playing against one-dimensional pieces like Matthew Dellavedova and John Henson, the C’s gave up good looks against the pick-and-roll, helping the Cavs stay in the game after a dismal start.

• Gordon Hayward is on track to return to the lineup four weeks after undergoing surgery on his broken left hand assuming he gets the all-clear from trainers before the game. "He went through everything today," Brad Stevens said at shootaround today. "Meeting with our trainers now. Walked through with the intention of playing, but we’ll see what happens out of that meeting."


• Marcus Smart is out due to an eye infection while Rob Williams has been ruled out with a sore left hip. The Celtics also won't have Romeo Langford (sprained ankle) but he's progressing toward being cleared for action later this week.


• The Celtics are 1-0 against the Cavs this season with a shootout win in Cleveland last month during which Hayward erupted for 39 points. Cleveland's been reeling of late with losses in 12 of their last 13 games but Stevens isn't expecting a walkover win tonight: "I’ve always said, you don’t play teams with what they did last, you don’t play teams with what they’ve done in the last few weeks, you play teams with 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."


• Kemba Walker relates to the situation that Kevin Love is in as a great player on a rebuilding team: "I know it’s tough for him because they’re losing games and stuff like that, but he’s a veteran guy. He’s won. He knows what it takes to win. I’m pretty sure he’s doing everything he can to put himself in the best possible situations. Hopefully, his future will be pretty bright. Maybe he’ll get out of there, maybe he won’t. I’m not sure. But I definitely wish the best for him for sure." The Cavs are rumored to be listening to offers for Love, who has three years left on his deal. Given the hefty salary ($27 million), don't expect the C's to be interested.