Gordon Hayward Dropped 35 Points On The Wolves In His Best Performance With Boston

Gordon Hayward’s Celtics career has not gone according to plan. His Boston tenure came to a halt before it ever got started after he dislocated his ankle in a gruesome injury in the first quarter of his first game as a Celtic.

A year later, Hayward is back on the floor but has spent much of the young season struggling to find his rhythm, averaging 10.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game on just under 40 percent shooting from the floor. Due to those offensive woes, Hayward was moved to the second unit and has been searching for the game that made him an All-Star in Utah.

On Wednesday night, he may have found it in Boston’s 115-100 win over the Timberwolves as he had his best outing of his Celtics career with 35 points on a ridiculously efficient 14-of-18 shooting night, including a 4-of-7 effort from three-point range.

With Kyrie Irving out, the Celtics needed a lift from someone on the offensive end and got it from Hayward and Terry Rozier’s scoring and Marcus Smart’s facilitating with eight assists. Hayward looked better than he has all season and for a Boston team that’s been not playing quite to the level they expected to, him being able to give them nights like this when Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown don’t have it going on the wing is huge.

The depth they have at that position allows them the freedom to ride with the hot hand, but to this point of the season they’ve been dealing with various scoring funks from all three. If Hayward can pick it up — and he looked comfortable not only from the perimeter but putting the ball on the floor and attacking — that will be a huge boost (along with Tatum’s recent improved play) while they wait for Brown to get it going.