Staying with plan, Hayward sits in Dallas

DALLAS — The Celtics are clearly choosing to err on the side of caution with their troops. One night after keeping Al Horford sidelined against the Hawks to stem the lingering trouble with his left knee, they held Gordon Hayward out of last night’s game here against the Mavericks to give his surgically repaired ankle a rest on the back-to-back. “Just a little bit of soreness in that ankle. Which is pretty typical from day to day this year,” said coach Brad Stevens. “I think one of the things we want to make sure of, kind of like with Al last night in this stretch, you know, we had some of these back-to-backs circled, and (Hayward) was feeling a little bit sore (Friday) night, so it makes sense for him to sit.” Making it more difficult for Hayward is that he’s coming off two of his better games this season, his second and third outings since Stevens decided to remove him from the starting lineup. Hayward had a season-high 19 points in Wednesday’s loss to the Knicks and hit four of seven shots on the way to 11 points and four assists in Friday’s win in Atlanta. “I thought he’s played two really good games in a row now,” said Stevens. “He makes everybody else’s life a little bit easier when he has the ball, because he usually gets it to the right spot. Hopefully that will continue, and then defensively in the last few games, I think he’s always been in the right spot and doing the right things. It’s probably not a huge surprise that each day you’re going to feel a little bit more comfortable playing together with this group.”

German connection

Dirk Nowitzki was at the American Airlines Center last night. So was Daniel Theis. Those two facts are connected. The two were born 14 years and a little more than 200 miles apart, but the former, a Mavericks Hall of Famer-to-be, helped pave the way for the second-year, 26-year-old Celtic and many others from Germany. “He was really important, because that was somebody to look up to, especially if you were young,” said Theis before the Celts took on the Mavs here last night. “You could see somebody like Dirk playing in the NBA -- I mean, not just playing but one of the best guys in his prime winning a championship. So he’s a role model for every young basketball player in Germany. “I think there’s a bright future for German basketball, as well.” Dallas’ roster also includes Maxi Kleber, a 6-10 contemporary of Theis, and fellow Deutschlanders Dennis Schroder, Paul Zipser and Mo Wagner are in the league, too. All sons of Nowitzki, who has yet to play this season after ankle surgery. “Maybe he changed the way teams looked at basketball in Germany -- and in Europe in general,” said Theis. “More and more people from Europe over the years since then started coming over to the NBA.” There were, of course, others from Germany in the past. Theis knew of Detlef Schrempf. “I think he was the only one,” said Theis. Alas -- and sadly -- he’d never heard of Uwe Blab, who began on the same Mavericks squad in 1985-86, but didn’t last nearly as long in the league. (And what about Christian Welp, right?) The difference is that improved communication technology and great international NBA coverage put Nowitzki in a brighter spotlight than his predecessors. “I think a lot of people in Germany stayed up late at night to watch the games when Dirk was playing in The Finals and won the championship (2010-11),” said Theis. “I don’t know the numbers, but I bet a lot of people stayed up to watch.” There probably a few back in the homeland watching last night, too.

All together

Kyrie Irving has noted that the Celtics need to spend more time together away from simply basketball situations. He believes that would help solve the cohesion problems they’ve been having on the court in the early going. Stevens thinks there’s more to it than that, but he’s on board. “I mean, I think those things are good,” he said. “I will say this: I’ve seen teams that really liked each other off the court that weren’t all that good, and teams that didn’t hang out as much that really competed when they got on the floor together. Ultimately it’s how you play when you get on the court, but I don’t think there’s any negative toward being around each other more and doing things like going out to dinner or whatever fun games people do together when they’re out. But I think that ultimately it’s how you compete when you’re on the floor”