It's hard not to feel for Gordon Hayward. The veteran swingman has dealt with countless injury setbacks since his arrival in Boston in 2017 and his run of bad luck continued earlier this week.
When the 30-year-old landed on the foot of Daniel Theis in the fourth quarter of Game 1, it looked like a classic ankle turn on video. However, Hayward knew it wouldn’t be a minor injury right away.
“I heard it and felt it and knew it wasn’t just (a) casual rolled ankle,” Hayward said Thursday. “It was swollen by the time I was leaving the court, so I knew that it was definitely worse than normal.”
Hayward was diagnosed with a Grade III ankle sprain hours later and now his postseason availability is in question even if the Celtics make a deep postseason run after being ruled out for at least four weeks.
“It’s definitely gutting,” Hayward said. “It sucks. There’s nothing else to say about that. So, it’s definitely frustrating. It doesn’t feel great at the moment. Just try to get better as soon as I can.”
Hayward had already planned on leaving the bubble anyway at some point in September to be with his wife for the birth of his child. While he plans on remaining in Orlando to rehab for now with the team and its trainers, it is possible he could join his wife in Indiana ahead of the birth due date.
"I think it's two separate things," Hayward said, referring to his injury and leaving the bubble to be with his wife during the birth of their son. "but it's something I'm taking a look at. It's just very unfortunate of the timing of the whole deal, so I think I'm just trying to take it day by day, and we're looking at scheduling for the baby and all that stuff, so it's taking it day by day."
The challenge now for the swingman will be to maintain a positive mindset regarding the possibility of a return to play despite the long road to recovery from a Grade III sprain.
"It's hard," Hayward said of not getting down. "It's hard not to get into that. I think teammates, family, mentors, having good people around you, I think it helps with all of that, certainly. Like I said, I just try to take it day by day, honestly, and just trying to attack rehab. I've definitely been here before, so I know how to do that.
"The mental side of rehab is by far more difficult than the physical side of rehab. There's a lot of time when you are alone and a lot of time when you are contemplating, a lot of time to think. The mental side is the hardest part. I think having good people around you is very key, it's very important, and I definitely have that."
The Celtics already have plenty of motivation for their postseason run but after hearing Hayward’s demeanor, staying alive long enough for him to return to the court should give them some extra incentive.
“We’ve lived this before and we’re going to have to have other people step up. That’s why you have a team,” Stevens said.
A perfect contrast of two postseasons
Kemba Walker didn’t get a lot of the headlines from Game 2, but he was crucial in the victory, scoring 20 of his 22 points in the final three quarters of the blowout win. While Walker picked the Sixers defense apart with his midrange shooting off of picks, Brad Stevens pointed out one specific play that stood out from the All-Star guard.
Walker had been stuffed by Joel Embiid on a layup attempt and knocked to the floor, creating a 5-on-4 for the Sixers on a fast break. Despite the hard fall, Walker hustled back into the play and managed to knock the ball loose, creating a wide-open dunk for Jaylen Brown.
Theis great job flipping screen, Jayson leverages threat of pull-up to get Embiid to commit, Kemba nice back cut, Jayson solid feed, Kemba recovers for the big steal, Jayson transition pass, and the 360 from Jaylen to cap it off pic.twitter.com/eoviDde6bp
— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) August 20, 2020
