It's been a remarkably consistent rule of thumb this season: When Gordon Hayward plays well, so do the Boston Celtics.
But Hayward's latest solid effort couldn't save the C's in Brooklyn on Saturday night.
Boston fell 110-96 to the Nets despite Hayward's 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting off the bench. As it turns out, Saturday was the first time all season the Celtics have lost on the road when Hayward drops 14 or more points.
The correlation between Hayward's success and his team's success is still very strong: They're now 22-3 overall when he reaches the 14-point threshold and 20-3 when he shoots better than 50 percent from the floor. Those numbers make sense, as the former All-Star can give the second unit a huge boost if he's playing confidently and aggressively.
But with no Kyrie Irving and Al Horford on Saturday night, Hayward had to operate in a more primary scoring role, and he didn't get much help: Marcus Morris and Daniel Theis (16 points each) were the only other Celtics to score in double figures.
On the bright side, Hayward now has hit double figures in four straight games since returning from concussion-like symptoms, and the Celtics would like to see that trend continue into the postseason.
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