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Tim BontempsESPN
INDIANAPOLIS – It's hard to imagine how Easter Sunday could have been much better organized for Gordon Hayward.
The Boston Celtics striker missed out on last year's playoff race because of the terrible ankle injury and ankle injuries he suffered six minutes into the season in Cleveland, but this time he was in good health. He was playing in the playoffs about 20 miles from his hometown of Brownsburg, Indiana, and he had his wife and three daughters on hand for the game.
He also had 20-of-9 shots out of 9 – including 3-of-3 on three runs – to go with three rebounds, two assists, two interceptions and one block to help the Celtics reach 110. 106 wins over Indiana Pacers. The victory completed a four-game sweep for Boston, sending it into an almost certain and long-awaited clash with the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals starting next weekend.
"Yeah, there's nothing worse than sitting there and not being able to play in the playoffs, especially," Hayward said. "So, to be able to be with my teammates, be part of something like this where we had the chance to sweep the Pacers, after all that happened last year, it's worth it, without a doubt .
"And that's just the beginning for us – we still have a lot of work to do."
All season, while the Celtics have had their ups and downs, their fate has always been linked to Hayward's game and his retreat from injuries and surgery that cost him a year of his life in basketball. Sunday's performance was the last example. She gave hope, from Boston's point of view, that what the Celtics hoped to accomplish at the beginning of the season was always presented to them.
The irony of this season the Celtics is that although the team has been widely (and fairly) criticized throughout the regular season for its inability to make significant progress over the season, Hayward has discreetly left it out. He became progressively more aggressive as the season progressed, and some of the explosiveness of his game before the injuries came back.
That was certainly the case in this case, especially when Hayward raised the ball on the ground, took off and threw a vicious slam dunk, even though he was canceled thanks to an offensive foul on Aron Baynes. Two or three months ago, such a piece would not have been in Hayward 's arsenal.
When the Celtics had to close the Pacers, Hayward scored nine points to help move Boston's lead four points to five points from the end, ten points to one minute from the end, avoiding having need this series. return to Boston for a fifth game.
It also meant the Celtics had moved up to 7-0 this season when Hayward scored at least 20 points – another indicator of how important it is for Boston to send him off.
"I was just very happy for Gordon," said Al Horford. "[With] all the adversity that he has been facing, to be able to come here in such an important match and give us such a big boost, big shot after blow, here in Indiana … J & # 39; I was so excited for him and happy that we were able to close him.
"It is one of the main reasons why."
Game 4, like the rest of this series of fierce battles in rock, was hard to decipher. The fact that the Celtics won a game in which Kyrie Irving and Horford scored a combined total of 8 to 32 among the players, including 1 for 10 to 3, is a testament to the Boston bench – Hayward, Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier combined to go 18-to-26 in the field, including 7-for-11 in the 3-point range, and scored 49 points – and Indiana's current offensive ineptitude.
Indiana barely gained 40% of the field in this game, thanks to some empty baskets at the last minute, and struggled to score for long periods. Star player Victor Oladipo was in the building for the first time since his quad tendon broke up on Jan. 26, and it was easy to wonder how much he could have been different for the Pacers had he been in good health. Although Indiana deserves to be credited for playing hard every moment of this series, she was finally unable to score enough to win even one of the last three contests.
"You can play all the defense you want," said Pacers center Myles Turner. "You have to put the ball in the hoop at the end of the day."
The fact that the Pacers are helpless for long periods of this series means that they become the first team eliminated from these playoffs, which means the Celtics can begin to contemplate their likely encounter with Milwaukee.
Barring a historic meltdown, the Celtics and Bucks will begin their series next weekend in Milwaukee in a rematch of the first-round series that the two teams went through last season. But while many players from last year's showdown remain on both sides, the differences between the two teams are deep.
Milwaukee, of course, changed coaches by hiring Mike Budenholzer, who put in place a system that allowed Giannis Antetokounmpo, this season's top player, to become the most valuable player of the season. The team also recruited Brook Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova as a free agent and traded against Nikola Mirotic before the February trading deadline, which allowed the team to win the NBA record.
The Celtics, on the other hand, have at their disposal Irving and Hayward who have both had to watch last year's playoffs in street dress because of injuries. They were supposed to be the ones who pushed Boston forward last year and made the Celtics a contender for the championship. Instead, their wounds opened the door to Rozier, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum will make significant progress sooner than expected.
One of the major themes of this season has been the Celtics' difficulty in getting the depth they have at their disposal in a harmonious way on the pitch. But finally, for Boston to go where he wants, Hayward must have more performances like Sunday.
"It has been a long process of coming back where he probably feels as good as today," said Celtics coach Brad Stevens. "We knew it was going, we said all year [that] every 20 games, he'll be a little better and he was very strong at the end of the match tonight, that's for sure. "
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