Celtics-Raptors Notebook: Gordon Hayward update, Kemba's knee scare, Tatum 4th in MIP voting

Monday marked just over two weeks since Gordon Hayward suffered a Grade 3 ankle sprain in Game 1 of the first round against the Sixers. Hayward left the team to rehab with his family over a week ago and that rehab continues from afar for at least a couple more days. However, it appears he is getting closer to returning to the bubble, even though that’s not necessarily an indicator that he will be available immediately after his initial four week projected absence.

“Rehab seems to be going OK,” Brad Stevens said. “He feels a little bit better. Still has a pretty significant amount of – I don’t think his gait is perfect yet. Once his gait feels right and becomes perfect he’s probably on a quicker course to coming back. I think he’ll rejoin us in the bubble at some point soon, but he still will be some time away when he does do that.”

Hayward’s wife Robyn is still expecting to give birth at some point in September to the couple’s fourth child, at which point Hayward would leave the bubble again in order to be with his wife for the momentous occasion. However, given the lengthy rehab that is usually involved with torn ankle tendons, it looks likely for now that Hayward’s best case scenario for returning would likely be sometime late in the Conference Finals, if the Celtics are able to advance that far.

The Celtics have managed to overcome his absence and put together four straight wins so far since his Game 1 injury, largely thanks to steady play from the team’s supporting cast.

“Not one person is going to do what he does statistically what he does every night,” Stevens said after Game 1. “We have to do it by committee. In the Philly series, Grant came off the bench and had big moments. Brad came off the bench, had big moments. Marcus was his normal self. Marcus today was unbelievable on both ends, and I thought Semi really filled that other spot well today. We need another body to throw at all these different guys, because they drive it so well, so we’re not trying to replace him with one person. We’re going to do our best to play to our strengths.”

While the winning has helped cover up some of Boston’s issues without the veteran swingman, Jayson Tatum left no doubt about his impact on the court.

“We know that, he knows that -- how much he means to this team,” Tatum said. “I just think in this circumstance that we’ve just got to play the cards we were dealt. A lot of teams deal with injuries and different things, so we can’t make excuses. We’d love to have him. Hopefully we’ll continue to keep winning and he can come back, but in the meantime, we’ve just got to next man up. Guys got to be ready.”

Kemba’s knee is fine after scare 

There was a scary moment for the Celtics midway through Game 1 against the Raptors when Kemba Walker awkwardly twisted his knee in a collision with Pascal Siakam. Walker was walking with a limp for afterwards, which caught the eye of the training staff.

However, after a very light practice on Monday, Stevens indicated there wasn’t any cause of a re-aggravation of his initial injury.

“I think he got, when he got rolled up on in front of our bench, by the basket, he felt it,” Stevens said after the team’s Monday practice, which included Walker. ”He didn’t have any restrictions. He went through all of our 12-minute practice today and then should be good to go tomorrow.”

The Celtics were able to limit his minutes to 32 in Game 1 thanks to the blowout win and the added rest appears to have paid off.

“Felt good (today), felt good actually,” Walker said. “Tweaked it a little bit, but it’s the nature of the game. It happens. For the moment, it bothered me a little bit, but my adrenaline was pumping, a little sore last night but I got some treatment. Doing everything I can to stay on top of it. I felt really good today actually. Hopefully I can continue to feel this way.”

More news and notes

—Jayson Tatum finished fourth in most improved player voting while Jaylen Brown was a distant 10th. Brandon Ingram won the award over Luka Doncic, Bam Adebayo after a big season for the Pelicans.
—Rob Williams said his Game 1 windmill dunk was spontaneous but it was more worried about doing something that didn’t earn him a spot on the bench afterward: “I really didn't know what I was going to do, I just didn't want to miss. I didn't want to come out of the game. As long as I made it, I didn't care what I did.”
—Brad Stevens on the passing of John Thompson: “Former Celtic? Yup, yup. First of all, his impact is enormous – on basketball, on sports, on community. I never knew him. I met him maybe on an occasion or two, but I know JT3 well. And our heartfelt condolences certainly go out to him and his family, and Patrick, and everybody at Georgetown now. But yeah, a huge impact on sports. I was a Hoosiers fan growing up so I remember a lot of the games that I watched locally, but the first national game that I really remember watching as a kid was Villanova-Georgetown. And that was a game that didn’t obviously end well for Georgetown. But Georgetown was such a giant. And their coach was so impactful and had such a presence. And then when you learn about all the great things he did off the court, what he meant to the players that played there, what he meant to the school, to see him up there a couple times when we were practicing the last few years, to see him kind of sitting on that perch, walking over and nudging someone like, ‘That’s Big John.’ Yeah, that was a big, big icon in basketball. Again, our condolences go out to him for sure. And his family.”