After a 108-89 loss to the Pelicans on Sunday, the Celtics have dropped three of their last four and are literally and figuratively limping into the postseason.
Boston figures to still land the No. 2 seed in the East as they are 6.5 games up on third-place Cleveland, but as their injury report remains filled with more star power than their active lineup, there are some concerns the Celtics are too banged up at the wrong time to make much noise in the East. Kyrie Irving and Al Horford figure to come back soon, which is a big boost, but Marcus Smart will miss 6-8 weeks and it is sounding increasingly unlikely they will get Gordon Hayward back at any time during the postseason, even if they made a deep run.
The latest update on Hayward came from general manager Danny Ainge, who discussed the status of the star forward this past week on Boston radio. Ainge mentioned Hayward suffering a “setback” during rehab and how he wasn’t even on the court yet, so while nothing was completely ruled out, fans shouldn’t get too excited about the possibility of him returning this season.
Those comments naturally got plenty of play and created speculation about the vague “setback” referred to, and on Sunday Ainge walked back that comment and clarified what he meant in a discussion with Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. Ainge said he regretting using “setback,” and while he couldn’t quite identify what word would be better, he did explain exactly what he was referring to with that comment.
“What happened is he went on the AlterG [anti-gravity treadmill] the first day and he felt some soreness,” Ainge said. “It was the first day he tried the AlterG, a long time ago. He just wasn’t ready for it at that point. That’s all it was.
“So I think ‘setback’ is the wrong way to put it. I mis-phrased that. I’m not sure what the right word is, but he wasn’t ready for that. So we waited a couple of weeks before we started that again, and since we started that again it’s been great and he’s progressed along on the AlterG. That’s all. It wasn’t like he had an accident or anything like that.”
That is good news for Hayward and should calm down any Celtics fans that may have had concerns about the star’s longterm health. That said, to say Hayward’s timetable got pushed back would still seem to be accurate. He was being pushed along a quick recovery timeline and they found that they were moving too quickly, so they slowed things down a bit and waited a couple weeks before putting him back on the treadmill.
Hopefully Hayward will make a full recovery and be 100 percent when he returns to the Celtics lineup, whenever that may be. Ainge’s clarification makes that seem like it is still expected to be the case, even if the timeline on his return remains murky at best.
