Boston Celtics: For one game, Gordon Hayward looked like himself again

Even if it just for one game, the Boston Celtics, despite the loss to the Sixers on opening night, should feel good about Gordon Hayward’s performance

The Boston Celtics may have dropped their season-opening game to the Philadelphia 76ers, the team many expect to come out of the East this season, but there was one thing that the former should feel good about.

It wasn’t the performance of their prized free-agent signing Kemba Walker. In fact, he struggled mightily for most of the night. Kemba finished with 12 points, two assists, and four turnovers while shooting 22 percent from the field and 17 percent from 3-point range.

It wasn’t their new million dollar man either, as Jaylen Brown finished with just eight points and seven rebounds as he suffered from foul trouble throughout the night. Jayson Tatum was solid, finishing with 21 points and 10 rebounds, but it took him 22 shots to get there. Not the type of efficiency that you’d like to see from a budding superstar.

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Instead, it was Gordon Hayward who had pretty become an afterthought after a pedestrian comeback season a year ago. At least for one game, Hayward looked a little like his old all-star self again.

Hayward finished with a game-high 25 points, five rebounds, and two assists. Perhaps what was most encouraging was the fact that he scored those 25 points 8-15 shooting from the field and made 11 trips to the free-throw line.

Eleven trips to the free-throw line prove that we’re seeing a much more aggressive Hayward, at least for one game, than we’ve ever seen throughout his tenure with the Celtics. To put that number in perspective, Hayward has only had that many free-throw attempts one other time during his Celtics’ tenure. Last season, he averaged just 2.6 free-throw attempts on the season.

Entering the season, Hayward was always viewed as the player on the roster that could always elevate this team’s ceiling. The big problem with that is there was no guarantee, or even a high probability, that we were ever going to see the Hayward that we saw a few years ago when he was arguably a top 15 player in the league. It was as if that player disappeared the moment he signed with the Celtics.

While his gruesome injury minutes into his Celtics tenure likely had a lot to do with that, there was nothing that we saw last season that would suggest otherwise. For all intent and purposes, Hayward was simply not the same player.

However, with Kyrie Irving and Al Horford both leaving in free agency, there was, at least, going to be a chance for Hayward to reemerge.

Most had the Celtics projected as a 3-6 seed in the Eastern Conference, certainly a tier lower than the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks and 76ers. Though, if we’re going to see all-star Gordon Hayward re-introduce himself to the league again this season, their ceiling certainly changes.

So, on a night in which the Celtics, for the most part, looked quite underwhelming against the Eastern Conference favorite, there was a reason for optimism in Boston.

Tatum needs to play more efficiently. Kemba needs to certainly play better, too. After signing a $100-plus million contract extension, Brown has to have more than eight points. But, even if is just after just one game, Gordon Hayward looks like Gordon Hayward again. And the Boston Celtics should feel great about that, even at 0-1.