Hayward now questionable

Celtics forward’s status upgraded from doubtful

The Boston Celtics have upgraded forward Gordon Hayward’s status to questionable for Saturday night’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat, a sign of a potential significant rotation upgrade.

Hayward has missed the past 12 games after severely spraining his right ankle at the start of the opening round of the playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers. His outside shooting could prove a key to Boston unlocking the Heat’s zone defense.

Hayward had been upgraded from out to doubtful before sitting out Thursday’s Game 2 106-101 loss that dropped the Celtics into a 0-2 deficit in the bestof-seven series.

The Celtics also listed rookie guard Romeo Langford, who made an 81-second cameo in Game 2 before being injured, as out with a strained right adductor.

The Heat’s injury report offered encouraging news with veteran forward Andre Iguodala, who missed the second half of Thursday’s victory with what Heat coach Erik Spoelstra initially termed a “tight back.”

The Heat on Friday listed Iguodala as probable for Saturday’s game at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.

Iguodala’s Thursday absence had Derrick Jones Jr. taking Iguodala’s minutes over the final two periods of Game 2, minutes also freed with Kendrick Nunn held out of Thursday’s second half amid his 1-of-7 shooting in the series.

Back in black

The Heat will be back in their black uniforms for the series’ next two games, after the Celtics, as the designated “home” team for the series’ first two games, had selected their Statement black as their primary uniform color for Games 1 and 2.

The Heat have adopted a playoff theme of “United in Black” this postseason, to wear their black Icon jerseys when possible, as part of the team’s “ongoing initiative to fight for social justice and take the next step in our pledge supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.”

The Celtics plan to again play in black uniforms as the home team in Games 5 and 7, if necessary.

Inverse order

While zone defense has grown more common in the NBA in recent years, the Heat’s remains the exception, a zone that has the team’s length at the top of the alignment.

“It’s a different look,” guard Duncan Robinson. “A lot of teams aren’t used to it. Not a lot of NBA teams play it, and we kind of do it in an unorthodox way. We put our length up top and just really try to be disruptive.”

“So we play it as a disruptive defense to try to disrupt flow and rhythm. [Thursday] it worked, so we kept running with it.”

The inverse approach has 6-foot-5 Heat rookie guard Tyler Herro with 20 rebounds through the series’ first two games.