Win vs. Detroit revives high expectations for Celtics - Gordon Hayward is back

Saturday's 109-89 win over the Detroit Pistons gave Celtics fans a lot of reasons for hope this season - none more important than the continued emergence of Gordon Hayward from devastating injury. I broke down the terrific highlight video by Tomasz Kordylewski piece-by-piece, and it is very encouraging.


It is evident from the video that Hayward is still favoring the previously-damaged left ankle. It can first be seen at the 0:41 mark of the video with a reverse layup on a feed from Terry Rozier. He makes the layup off the right leg after taking some contact. But his finish was perfect.



The same can be seen at the 1:24 mark on the video where Gordon drives past Andre Drummond for a layup. He once again goes off the right leg. We have been told that Hayward's left ankle is sore after every game, and that is to expected. Favoring the left leg also is in line with what we should be seeing at this point.

Gordon scored 15 points on 6-of-11 from the field, 2-of-5 on treys, and 1-of-3 from the charity stripe, while adding five rebounds, one assist, one steal and a plus/minus of +18. It was his best game thus far in the young season.

For the season, Hayward is shooting an acceptable 43% from the field and 40% on 3-pointers. His free-throw shooting is a surprising 50% and may indicate that he was forced to spend almost all of his time painfully rehabbing and just trying to get back on the floor.

Gordon and Al Horford may be Boston's most-versatile pair, and I am looking forward to their interaction on the court. Hayward's game is one of finesse and precision, and we can see it in his moves on the court. He will absolutely fit right in. That Detroit game taught us a lot. Any Celtics fan that isn't excited about the season just isn't paying attention.

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Photo via Chris Schwegler, NBAE via Getty Images
Video via Tomasz Kordylewski