MILWAUKEE — Gordon Hayward had just called for a clear out and threw himself into reverse as teammates spaced the floor. Before he even started forward again, some prophetic words were uttered on ABC’s broadcast of Sunday’s Game 1 between the Celtics and Bucks.

"Really starting to look like his old self"

Before the announcer could finish his thought, Hayward had exploded past defender Pat Connaughton and, despite being immediately encircled by five white jerseys, Hayward calmly leaped off one leg, lingered in the air, and sent a 15-foot floater over Ersan Ilyasova as the Celtics stretched out an early double-digit lead.

"He just went by his defender like he wasn’t even there"

Shrouded a bit by all the hype about how the Celtics bottled up Giannis Antetokounmpo during Sunday’s Game 1 triumph, Boston’s offense quietly dissected Milwaukee’s drop scheme, with both Hayward and Kyrie Irving probing their way into opportunities to either score or create for teammates.

But the sequences like Hayward’s second-quarter floater are particularly encouraging for Boston. It was the second time in as many games that Hayward has had the confidence to reverse out and then explode to the basket with the confidence that he was going to dust his defender.

During Game 4 in Indiana, Hayward kicked it in reverse before charging at shot-blocking maven Myles Turner while extracting a bit of revenge for an earlier poster dunk by muscling home a tough and-one finish off the glass. Earlier in that Indiana series, Hayward had another encouraging sequence in which he snared a rebound, went coast-to-coast with the ball, and Euro-Stepped his way through a defender before finishing with a layup.

The Boston bench lost its mind on the Euro, with teammates mimicking the motion in the aftermath. Semi Ojeleye is happy that everyone else is finally seeing what teammates have gotten glimpses of at times this season.

“When Gordon makes plays like [the Eurostep] — he’s making those plays in practice and in walkthroughs and we're like, ‘Damn, he’s really getting back to who he was,’” said Ojeleye. "I think some people kinda forget the All-Star and the great player that he is. I’m real happy to see him get back.”

This is a sentiment echoed throughout the Celtics’ locker room. In much the same way that Boston as a whole has had to grind through a roller coaster season, only to start playing to its expectations in the playoffs, so too has Hayward. And while he’s the first to admit there’s still room for improvement, these more sustained glimpses “Utah Gordon" seemingly changes the ceiling of what Boston might be able to accomplish this season.

For the postseason, the Celtics have a net rating of plus-12.8 during Hayward’s 154 minutes of court time. That’s fourth-best among regulars but also ahead of teammates like Irving (plus-11.7) and Jayson Tatum (plus-10.3). It speaks to both the strong play of the Hayward-led bench unit but also how well Hayward has played when running with starters in crunch-time lineups.

Hayward is averaging 12.4 points while shooting 51.2 percent overall and41.7 percent beyond the 3-point arc, to go along with 4.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1 steal over 30.8 minutes per game this postseason. Sure, that’s not the 2016-17 Hayward who averaged 24.1 points on 17 shots per game for Utah but he’s not being asked to be that player now.

In Game 1, Hayward hit a string of shots in the first half while Boston built its initial lead, then used his playmaking to help the Celtics motor away in the second half. It was Hayward's leaping pass over an oncoming double team that fed Jaylen Brown for his much-ballyhooed dunk on Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Asked about Hayward’s playmaking, teammate Al Horford reveled in Hayward’s all-around progress.

“It’s great. I’m really happy to see Gordon felling comfortable,” said Horford. "It’s for all of us to understand how to play around him and have him make plays and stay aggressive, and that’s how he’s been this past month. I just feel like he continues to hit his stride and get better.”

Hayward has maintained that there was no “aha!” moment, no stretch where it really started to click for him recently. It’s simply been a slow build, the accumulation of 82 games worth of reps, and figuring out his own place in Boston’s system.

Horford admitted that reintegrating on the fly was a challenge in and of itself for someone like Hayward, who hadn’t really played with this team before getting injured last season.

“[Reps] and also us getting used to playing with him, and him with us,” said Horford. "Everyone is trying to put the pieces together. It took us way longer than we were hoping but we feel like we’ve found something now.”

Part of what they’ve found is a little bit of the old Hayward, a guy who oozes confidence in the way he attacks the offensive side of the ball.

Ojeleye, who works out with Hayward and often shoots after practice with him, has seen that confidence slowly return. He believes he’s getting closer to the Hayward he first met in San Diego in the offseason before their first season together in Boston.

"You could see it in his workouts, he got his confidence up, and he started carrying it into games,” said Ojeleye. "I knew it would just take time. The way he works, you see how he’s fought back from this all, and he’s just going to continue to get better.

"I think he’s just been slowly getting it. I think he got down on himself during the year when things didn’t go his way. But he consistently got better. I think the numbers showed it, and everyone else around him could see it. He wanted it so bad right then and there [earlier in the year], but it took time.”

Better late than never. It’s probably no coincidence that the Celtics have started to turn a corner at the same time that Hayward is having no trouble turning corners on defenders, too.

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