Don’t miss NBC Sports Boston's coverage of Celtics-Spurs, which tips off Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET with Celtics Pregame Live, and then Mike & Scal have the call of the game at 5 p.m. You can also stream the game through the MyTeams App.
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A year ago, whenever Gordon Hayward had one of those breakout-type games, his teammates celebrated by dousing him with cups of water or Gatorade.
These days, a few “Good game Gordon” comments from his teammates are about as giddy as they get when he puts up big numbers.
The fact that big games from Hayward are becoming the norm rather than an anomaly speaks to how far the 29-year-old has come since having his career derailed by way of a major ankle injury a couple of years ago.
His improvement is such that the questions and concerns of a year ago don’t hold much water these days.
Instead of observers being so concerned with whether he’s back to playing like he did when he was an All-Star in Utah, there’s a new question people need to get used to asking.
How much better is Hayward now compared to when he was in Utah?