Hayward heads home
Extra emotions vs. his former mates
By MARK MURPHY
SALT LAKE CITY — Judging from the long line of photographers awaiting his arrival with the team bus last night, Gordon Hayward’s return to his former home was a major event.
Hayward has had a channeled response to this moment. He had the date circled on his calendar last season, and regretted not being able to return due to injury. He hoped people didn’t boo too much. He still has a lot of friends in Utah.
And now he had to play in front of those boos.
“We’ve all lived homecomings of sorts, and everyone handles those the way they handle them,” Brad Stevens said before last night’s game against the Jazz. “As time goes by it may get easier and easier, but the first time back is always unique. He’ll handle it fine.
“Obviously he spent seven great years here and it meant a lot to him and his family,” he said. “I’m sure there’s emotions that go into that for him. The best we can you focus on what you can control and go from there. It would be not human to not recognize there’s extra emotions attached to this.”
Rozier steps in
Kyrie Irving missed last night’s game in order to attend a memorial service for his grandfather, leading to Terry Rozier’s first start since Game 6 of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals.
By his own admission, Rozier has struggled enough this season that Stevens had to tell him to stop pressing.
Last night, then, was Rozier’s chance to stretch out a little bit – to find his way through increased minutes.
“He’ll play more minutes most likely because there’s more minutes to be had,” said Stevens. “Any time you have that you’re less likely to press. I think he did a really good job (Thursday) night (in Phoenix). Made a lot of the right plays. Hey, him adjusting to that new spot, and the ups and downs that come with it are as predictable as it comes. That’s part of it – he’s a really good player, everyone knows he’s a really good player, and we won’t change our plan of attack with him. When Kyrie isn’t available he’ll start, when he is he’ll come off the bench.”
Crowder hot
Jae Crowder has found the perfect landing spot in Utah, and like Marcus Morris for the Celtics, is third on the team in scoring (14.2 ppg) in a sixth-man role.
Stevens, thinking back to the not-so-distant past, remembers Crowder as one of the building blocks for the system he now has in place.
“Jae, along with a lot of his teammates, did an unbelievable job, and he’s continued that here,” said the Celtics coach. “From what I see from afar, his best start of the season. He seems really comfortable, he’s in a great system, he fits exactly what Quin (Snyder) wants to do. He can play off the bounce, play as a stretch four, play a number of positions. Our desire as a team was to become more versatile, and at the time Jae was our very most versatile. There’s a reason his game looks so good and translates so well in this stretched-out NBA.”
Brown OK
Jaylen Brown, who absorbed an elbow to his lower left ribcage Friday night in Phoenix, was available for action last night.
“He’s Ok. He was a little sore, but good to go as far as playing goes,” said Stevens.