Carsen Edwards gets it going in Celtics’ victory over Cavaliers

Gordon Hayward was the star of the Boston Celtics 119-113 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night, and rightly so. The versatile wing scored 39 points on an absurd 17-of-20 shooting performance, while chipping in 7 rebounds and 8 assists for good measure. Hayward’s effectiveness and efficiency were staggering, but he wasn’t the only player on Boston’s roster to have an impressive individual performance.

Rookie Carsen Edwards poured in 13 points in 15 minutes, hitting 5 of his 6 attempts from the field, including a 3-for-4 effort from beyond the arc. Scoring outbursts aren’t uncommon for Edwards. The diminutive guard with wrecking ball thighs can go supernova in an instant. You may recall a five minute stretch in the preseason in which he canned eight three-pointers against the very same Cavs.

Edwards was en fuego for most of the Celtics’ preseason, but struggled mightily through Boston’s first four regular season affairs, posting miserable .227/.154/.667 shooting splits in limited minutes. It was only a matter of time until he snapped out of his funk.

Edwards is an exceptionally gifted scorer with confidence bordering on unconscionable, though you’d never know it from talking to him. He downplayed his performance after the game, celebrating his team’s success over his own.

“I just took shots I felt were open, and they were able to go in,” Edwards said of his night. “I’m just glad we won. Our team did some good things.”

The Boston fan base will undoubtedly be more enthusiastic about Edwards’ performance. He won’t make 83% of his shots every game moving forward, but he can be a legitimate source of points off the bench. The Celtics will look for Edwards to build on his success moving forward.