The Boston Celtics are the NBA's hottest team, having won seven games in a row to improve to an NBA-best 7-1, but they were dealt a significant blow during their win over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, as Gordon Hayward suffered a broken hand.
The Celtics are no strangers to injuries, but obviously, given how well Hayward had been playing over the first couple of weeks, this is going to be a tough pill to swallow, and Jayson Tatum agrees:
“It’s going to be tough,” said Tatum, according to Brian Robb of The Boston Sports Journal. “He was playing great. We were playing great.”
Hayward sustained the injury after colliding with Spurs big man LaMarcus Aldridge during the first half on Saturday and immediately left the game. He had logged nine points and a couple of rebounds before exiting.
On the season overall, Hayward is averaging 18.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists over 31.1 minutes per game while shooting 55.5 percent from the floor, 43.3 percent from three-point range and 84.2 percent from the free-throw line.
His most impressive performance came during a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in which he poured in 39 points, eight assists and seven rebounds while shooting an insane 17-of-20 from the floor, making all 16 of his two-point shots (that is not a misprint).
Hayward signed with Boston during the summer of 2017 and has been plagued by injuries ever since.
He suffered a devastating broken leg injury on opening night in 2017-18 that knocked him out for all of that season and severely limited him all of last year.
He finally appeared to find his groove early this season, but now, the 29-year-old has suffered yet another setback.
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