Gordon Hayward to play in Hornets' season opener vs. Cavaliers

When Gordon Hayward put pen to paper on a four-year, $120 million deal with the Charlotte Hornets this offseason, his injury woes didn't just disappear. 

He was hoping for a fresh start in Charlotte, but suffered a broken pinky finger during training camp, making his status for the team's season opener unclear. The former Boston Celtic said Tuesday that he plans to play against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday despite his finger still being broken, per Lonzo Wire.

“It’s obviously still broken but I’m going to play and just play through it, basically,” he said. “It’s something where I understand what happened to it, what the injury is and I just got to kind of play through it. There’s no risk to further damage by playing so it’s a pain tolerance type deal and we’re going to make it work.”

Hayward was out of practice for four days, returning to the court for individual drills on Dec. 18 before rejoining the team for practice on Monday. He's expected to play a key role in helping the Hornets make it back to the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 campaign. 

In 20 career games against Cleveland, Hayward is averaging 15 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game while shooting 53.3% from the field and 35.8% from deep. He might not put up those numbers against the club on Wednesday due to his pinky injury, but we'll just have to wait and see. 

Last season with the Celtics, the 30-year-old averaged 17.5 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game last season while shooting 50% from the field and 38.3% from deep.