The most impressive part of Gordon Hayward’s line in his first game back on the court following a five-week absence probably came in the minutes played column: 31.
With limited conditioning opportunities in a 5-on-5 setting in Orlando in the wake of his Grade 3 ankle sprain, Hayward still managed to handle the heavier minutes load to help make up for foul trouble for Marcus Smart and Daniel Theis in the second half.
Hayward scored just six points on 2-of-7 shooting during the C’s Game 3 win, but a major question mark entering Game 4 was how Hayward was going to respond to the heavier minutes load rather than just being eased back into action. The early returns are promising, according to Brad Stevens.
“He’s responded well,” Stevens said of Hayward. “Put in a lot of work to get ready for that. I didn’t anticipate necessarily playing him 31 minutes, but I never thought he looked like he was completely gassed either. I thought there were times he obviously wanted to come out and we took him out for a quick breather, but I was more worried about the conditioning aspect of it than necessarily the structure of the ankle. I think the ankle is, our training staff felt really good about where he was and how much work he had put in and that it looked like it was going to be able to handle it, knowing we had four days off and knowing the recovery was going to have a little bit more time. It extended his minutes a little bit.”
With Hayward in the fold, Stevens was able to get far pickier with the rest of his bench rotation. Brad Wanamaker and Grant Williams were the only two bench players to play in the second half and the entire Celtics bench played a total of 23 minutes when not including Hayward’s minutes. That number could go down even further in Game 4 and beyond since Theis was limited to just 24 minutes due to foul trouble. Hayward’s positive response to the heavy load gives Stevens the confidence to throw more at him now as the series continues.
“What I said yesterday I think is important is, now he knows he can do it,” Stevens said. “I think sometimes when you come back and you’re on a minutes restriction and you play 15 or 20, then the next step is 22, then the next step is 24, then the next step is 26. He knows he can do it as long as we pace those stints well. So that’s what we’ll keep doing. He won’t get to 40, but he’ll play minutes.”
The Celtics have the ability to play just seven guys in this series now if they want and that’s a path we may see the Heat take as their deep bench has been largely underwhelming in this series outside of Tyler Herro. Kelly Olynyk, Andre Iguodala, Derrick Jones Jr and Kendrick Nunn are a combined 6-of-32 in the series (18 percent), leaving Miami’s offense stalling a bit whenever two of those guys are on the court.
Miami’s top-6 may have been enough to overcome a short Boston rotation without Hayward but they do not have that luxury anymore after a building a 2-0 edge.
“Obviously we played a while without him,” Jayson Tatum said. “And I’ve said it before: crazy that anyone would think we’re better without him. We’re so much better when he’s out there and so much more dynamic, so much more versatile when he’s out there. So it felt great to have the full team back.
“He played great in his first game and he’s going to continue to get better, get his feel back. So to have him back is everything. Just because his decision-making, his ability to make plays for others and for himself. It just opens up the floor so much more. They’ve got to respect him. So it’s just having a bunch of guys out there you really can’t help off of because everybody can shoot, knock down shots, make plays, I think it makes it tough.”
Other news and notes
- Brad Stevens on the coaching chess match throughout the postseason: “I said this every series we've played, I learned something from every team we play. I learned some stuff from Philly, learned stuff from Toronto, learning every day from Miami. I think Erik is tremendous on both sides of the ball. And I think that the way that they've morphed their team, to just play around the strengths of Adebayo at the elbow, and all those guys cutting off at him, and then to be able to play with Dragic or Butler in pick-and-rolls or isolations or get matchups or whatever, is tremendous. And then on the defensive end, I think the additions of Crowder and Iguodala gave them a ton more versatility at the trade deadline. But it also, I think, made everyone else a better defender, because it gave them a little bit more help and the schemes that they've put in place make it really hard to find a good shot. I think the world of their whole program, I think they're tremendous. But that's the fun part of this is that when you're playing at this time of the year — I guess it's not this time of the year, usually. Usually you're getting ready for training camp. But when you're playing in the playoffs, that's the part that is fun. And there are tweaks that are made game to game by both teams. Some bigger impacts, some smaller impact, some that may or may not be noticed. But I think he's terrific.”
- The Celtics three-day rest between Games 3 and 4 will be their last lengthy break of the postseason if they advance past the Eastern Conference Finals. The NBA Finals is scheduled to begin on September 30th, although that could be pushed to October 1st if the C’s-Heat goes seven games (Tuesday would be Game 7). Either way, there will be no longer than a two-day break for the C’s to start the NBA Finals, with an every-other-day schedule expected the rest of the way.
