What was up with Gordon Hayward’s latest injury? He details why he sat out
.JPG "Charlotte Hornets forward Gordon Hayward (20) drives against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Caris LeVert during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane)")
Any giddiness was subdued because of the final score and the celebratory feelings were muted, silenced in part after yet another numbing outing.
Gordon Hayward’s return from a two-week absence nursing a left shoulder contusion gave the injury-ravaged Charlotte Hornets a boost on Friday night, providing them with the slightest thing to garner some holiday cheer. Although Hayward’s presence didn’t quite spur them enough and Cleveland spoiled the outcome in his first full game back since the calendar flipped to November, it was a much-needed sight for a team desperate to grasp onto something positive.
“It was good to be out there,” Hayward said following the Hornets’ 132-122 double overtime loss to Cleveland at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. “Not obviously my best game, but I think that will come here with a couple of more games. I was out, what, two weeks? So there is nothing like playing in a game.
“It doesn’t matter how much you do to get ready. I was happy that I was able to get out there, that my shoulder held up during the game. I took some hits, but we’ll get some treatment and keep it going.”
Getting Hayward back couldn’t have come at a better time for the Hornets. With LaMelo Ball sidelined once more after re-injuring his sprained left ankle and a timetable for him to return unclear, Hayward provides the team with another person who’s able to create offense.
The seven assists he accumulated along with 13 points and seven rebounds against the Cavaliers were perfect proof.
“Yeah, that’s the main thing, just having a playmaker out there,” Terry Rozier said. “And (Hayward) as been great. He’s just trying to get his shoulder right. So (he has to) be patient, but it’s good to have another playmaker out there.”
The Hornets’ offense could use all the extra assistance it can get at this point. Scoring only 108.8 points per game places them 26th in the league and their 109.9 offensive rating ranks 25th.
Hayward won’t completely cure their offensive ills. Still, tasked with many chores as an elder statesman, Hayward can be a calming influence for the Hornets (4-13) whenever he’s on the floor. He usually knows what’s the right play to make in that particular situation and can also be a defensive quarterback on occasion.
In short, there’s so many things Hayward does, plenty of which goes unnoticed.
“Well, he makes, obviously, an enormous difference,” coach Steve Clifford said. “And he was involved early in the game. They had changed their schemes. They were switching a lot more against us and we struggled to move the ball. And Gordon was really in the middle of that group. He and PJ (Washington), they got the ball moving.
“He had seven assists, no turnovers. He gets the ball moving, his decision-making is terrific. That was his first game back, but obviously he makes a big difference for our team.”
So, exactly what was Hayward dealing with while he was out injured since Nov. 2? Leading into his return, he spoke with The Charlotte Observer about his latest ailment and his feelings about being sidelined yet again.
Roderick Boone: What is your frustration level registering at since you haven’t been able to be on the court as frequently as you would prefer?
Gordon Hayward: Yeah, I mean it’s not ideal. That’s for sure. It seems like it’s been a string of them here that’s very unfortunate. It’s kind of like a broken record, right? But basketball, things happen. It’s been tough on our team because we’ve had multiple guys out at the same time and we still have multiple guys out.
So, we’ve just kind of got hit with all these injuries and haven’t been able to really have our whole team out there. And so to see us kind of struggling a little bit and having to watch is obviously difficult.
RB: How much does it bother you that this keeps happening, especially after you put in a lot of work with your trainer this past offseason?
GH: It’s stuff that’s out of your control honestly, so it’s easy to get frustrated and there’s definitely moments where I have my own support group that I vent to. But you’ve just got to try to do everything you can to get it right. And thankfully this was not a long-term thing. I’ve been through way worse.
RB: How did it happen? Walk me through it.
GH: It initially happened in the Golden State game. I think it was a couple of screens that were set. I think I was chasing around Klay (Thompson) all night and that kind of initially set it off. And playing in the Sacramento game, there was a moment where I fell right on it at the beginning of the second half, and I think that aggravated it a lot. And then tried to play through it in Chicago and it basically got to the point where it’s like, ‘All right, I can’t use this arm anymore.’
And so it’s been kind of basically built up through that, and slowly been trying to get it to calm down and work through it. Basketball is a game where you need your arms. You can’t really play with one arm, and be effective and be the player that I know I can be. So, I’ve been working through it since then.
RB: Is it more about strength now or range of motion?
GH: It’s everything. Initially it’s range of motion. And so you’ve got to kind of build both of those things up at the same time, which we are doing and it’s getting better.
RB: Sitting out and watching, it’s happening so frequently for you. What is it like to not be able to help your teammates at times?
GH: It’s one of the hardest things to do, is to just sit there and watch. The one thing that you can do when you are injured, there’s different things you see. The game definitely slows down when you are watching on the side. You are able to kind of take a step back and see it from a different frame and different point of view, even if you are on the bench but are going to go in the game. It’s just different when you are kind of sitting there.
So, sometimes there’s things you can do as a player where you have that time, and you try to learn and you get to see different things in the game that maybe you didn’t see. So, I always try to look at the positives and things you can take. I know with Melo, it’s tough having to sit out, but there’s things you can do like that.
This story was originally published November 19, 2022 at 9:42 AM.
