Hayward at home on road
C’s forward’s 30 tames T’wolves
MINNEAPOLIS — The Celtics haven’t been home much over the first two months of the season, and while those travel miles don’t explain their phlegmatic start, it does show their proving ground has come in other arenas. And last night Gordon Hayward, in his finest night as a Celtic, made the biggest plays in one of the most impressive road wins of the year. The forward’s 30-point performance, which included seven rebounds and eight assists, clinched the C’s 118109 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, w who had won their previous four games. The Celtics have won three straight games and four of their last five. Hayward, who had bemoaned his inability to get to the line a night earlier, was also 10-for-10 from the line. Derrick Rose’s drive past Kyrie Irving with 3:55 left cut the Celtics lead to 103-99. The Celtics guard had just scored off a deflection of his own pass. The Celtics called a timeout, put a unit of Hayward, Al Horford, Marcus Smart. Irving and Jayson Tatum on the floor, and blanched when Hayward missed from the baseline. Robert Covington, fouled in the rebound battle, hit twice, cutting the Celtics lead to a basket with 3:31 left. Tatum up-faked his way to an open miss from the baseline, but Karl-Anthony Towns fouled Hayward under the basket. The latter hit twice for a 105-101 lead. Rose missed under pressure from Horford, Covington fouled Tatum on the break, and the C’s forward hit twice for a 107-101 lead with 2:40 left. One Rose miss later Hayward buried a 25-footer from the left wing, this time for a 109-101 lead, and after two Andrew Wiggins free throws, drove for a 111-103 lead. He added two free throws for a 113-103 edge with 1:23 left. The Celtics barely survived an 11-point third quarter from Towns, but emerged with an 84-77 lead. Rose almost immediately took a bite out of that, scoring seven of Minnesota’s first nine points of the fourth, including five in a 10-0 Minnesota run that tied the game at 89-89 on a Gorgui Dieng three-point play. Morris buried his fourth trey of the night just in time, breaking the tie, and coming back with two free throws for a 94-89 lead. Covington missed from downtown, Hayward grabbed the long rebound, and hit the leaking Terry Rozier with a long outlet pass for a 96-89 Celtics lead with 7:33 left. One timeout later, Hayward was fouled jumping for an alley-oop attempt and converted the free throws for a 98-89 lead, capping the Celtics run at 9-0. But with Irving’s 3-pointer the only Celtics response, Minnesota hit back with an 8-3 run, including a Covington three-point play after picking off an Irving pass and absorbing a Morris foul down the other end. Irving scored off a deflection of his own pass, but Rose, isolated on the Celtics guard, drove to cut the margin to 103-99 with 3:55 left. Hayward’s 14-point half, including six rebounds, three assists and 4-for-7 shooting in 15 minutes, was likely his best stretch to date as a Celtic, and the main reason the C’s carried a 57-48 lead into halftime.