[itrsteve]

As a Celtics diehard, I had a tough time last night. All of that excitement and anticipation just got destroyed in an instant.

I think there are some positives to take away:

- Coming from somebody who had the same break, pending it's a clean break with no extensive ligament damage, he's going to come back just fine. It's going to be a considerable amount of time but he's going to be okay. Not like an ACL/MCL or something career altering.

- This wasn't their year anyway with the competition landscape so now it opens the door for Jaylen and Tatum to really get thrown in the fire, get their confidence up and elevate the team THAT much more when Hayward comes back. Their growth won't be stunted, just the C's win totals this year.

- If his healing process is like mine, you'll see him walking with no moon boot in 2 months, sitting on the sidelines, mentoring, lending his leadership, learning the system.

- You'll never know what anybody is made of until they face adversity. Last night was adversity while they had their throats stepped on after Hayward went out, they re-grouped at the half and came out with just as much tenacity and defensive grit as they ever had last year. I think they looked great regardless.

Bad takeaways:
Our Christmas just got greatly diminished, we're flying to Boston for the Christmas Day game. It'll still be awesome though.