A flash of Gordon
Hayward returns from injury with baby steps
Gordon Hayward’s relief at getting his initial return to the floor out of the way Friday night was so palpable, his teammates felt it.
“You guys can no longer ask him, ‘When are you playing again?’” Kyrie Irving said after the Celtics opened their exhibition season with a loss to Charlotte at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. It was also a game that revealed much of the Celtics’ promise before it devolved into sloppiness.
Irving was not above anticipating this moment himself, and admitted: “Honestly I just wish some of us, including myself, would get off his back a little bit.”
Asked to clarify, Irving broke into a smile.
“I’ve been waiting for him to play as well, just like everyone else. I missed him,” he said before riffing on the idea. “I miss you G, I miss you. Now our first game is out of the way and we can continue to focus on getting better.”
Hayward ran off a grocery list of the ways he needs to proceed from here — most of it involving timing and rhythm. He considered his conditioning the least of his concerns — a testament to the long, solitary hours the Celtics forward spent in rehabilitation last season while his teammates were having all the fun on the court.
But there were signs Friday night. After suffering through a 1-for-5 first half when he rimmed out a pair of 3-point attempts — he finished with 10 points, five from the free-throw line — Hayward stepped into the third quarter by making a pull-up 3-pointer.
That alone was worth the previous misses.
“That one felt good because the others were just barely off,” Hayward said. “It was like a ‘finally!’ type moment. More of those will come with playing. That’s what’s great about this training camp we had and these preseason games. We have a lot of work to do — that’s obvious — and I have a lot of work to do individually.”
And though the initial anticipation is over for Irving, rest assured the Celtics guard will continue to be in Hayward’s ear.
“Continue to communicate, utilize our practice days, continue to build continuity. We have to continue to challenge him to be who he is,” said Irving. “Obviously we saw Gordon prior to the injury — an All-Star in our league who committed here to Boston. We thought we were going to have a very special team and still do. But there was a piece missing when he went down. It feels right, and just want him to continue to stay healthy.
“Gordon’s going to be Gordon,” Irving added. “Obviously there’s a lot of nerves from not playing in a year.”
To hear Hayward describe it, his path to the season opener against Philadelphia is paved with little checkpoints.
“Timing on shots, pullups, cuts to the rim,” he said. “The one cut I had to the rim, would have dunked that one. Tried to go up off my leg and didn’t have it, I guess. That stuff will come back, I guess, a little explosion. I’m certain of that. The speed of the game, too, with the crowd, I have to adjust to again.
“My conditioning felt fine. As far as running up and down it was fine. It’s more of a rhythm and timing thing with my shot. Little bit flat, but that will come from playing more games.”
And for a player who missed an entire season to a catastrophic injury, there will be a need for more games.
“I don’t know if it’s thinking about it or finding the rhythms and timings of the game that I’ve been away from,” he said. “But that’s offensively and defensively. I had a lot of plays defensively I just messed up. Those are habits I’ve lost a little bit — defensive habits I have to get back. But offensively and defensively there are things that will come back for me.”