Boston Celtics Come Up Just Short in Emotional Season Opener

The Boston Celtics came up just short in their emotional season opener

Kyrie Irving’s return to Cleveland turned out to be an afterthought with the event that transpired in the 2018 NBA season opener.

Gordon Hayward suited up for the Boston Celtics in his first regular season game wearing green at Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday night. Just minutes into the game, Hayward suffered one of the most gruesome injuries after an alley-oop attempt.

If you were watching the game live, you probably wish you got up to go to the bathroom or grabbed a snack when the injury occurred. It was reported that he suffered a fractured ankle and ultimately took a flight back to Boston (via ESPN and others).

More damage surrounding the injury will probably be released in the near future (Brad Stevens said he had a dislocated ankle and a fractured tibia in an interview shown after the game). When the injury occurred, players were in shock and disbelief, the arena was dead silent, and a very emotional Irving was being consoled by Marcus Smart.

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LeBron James went over to the stretcher to comfort Hayward, and Brian Windhorst reported that Lebron visited Hayward in the locker room. There is no timetable yet for Hayward.

Rightfully so, the Celtics were rattled and didn’t play fluent basketball for the remainder of the half. Mentally, they were not in the game. They trailed the Cavaliers by 16 at halftime.

Brad Stevens must have delivered an unbelievable speech at the break because the Celtics came out with intensity, effort, and inspiration in the third quarter. Smart led the way with his energy, effort, defense, hustle plays, and Kyle Korver post-ups. Despite a poor shooting night, Smart finished the game with 12 points and nine rebounds.

Jayson Tatum also settled down in the third quarter and started to let the game come to him. He finished his rookie debut with 14 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Jaylen Brown played with confidence throughout the entire night. He was attacking the basket and showed us that he believes in his perimeter jump shot. Brown led all Celtics’ scorers with 25 points. Boston trailed by one point after three quarters following a Derrick Rose buzzer beater.

The game came down to the wire and the Celtics had the last possession, which was a missed three-pointer by Irving. Irving had a very good debut, scoring 22 points and recording ten assists. Irving showed flashes of his passing talents and an ability to feed it to his teammates in his first game as a Celtic. Aron Baynes was also impressive in spurts. He brought energy and activity on the boards, provided a defensive presence in the post, and got the most out of his fouls.

Lebron was vintage. 29 points, 16 rebounds, and nine assists. Just another day at the office. Oh, and Lebron said that he was really out of shape after the game, so there’s that.

Next: Kyrie Irving is Ready

The Celtics could have dropped dead after Hayward’s injury, but they showed resilience, which was extremely impressive. They were down by 18 points at one point, and only lost the game by three points. Losing Hayward is devastating going forward, there is no doubt about it. A date with the Bucks on Wednesday will be tough emotionally and physically. Tatum and Brown are going to have to grow up even faster going forward. Now, we wait for the timetable to be released, but for now, we have to hope that Hayward won’t be out for the entire season.

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