BOSTON — Brad Stevens has said everything is under evaluation when you are not playing up to your capability.

While the Celtics coach said he did a lot of evaluating in the three days in between Sunday night’s loss in Portland and Wednesday’s return to TD Garden against the Chicago Bulls, he determined it was too early to make any changes to the starting lineup that had the Celtics sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference [...]

BOSTON — Brad Stevens has said everything is under evaluation when you are not playing up to your capability.

While the Celtics coach said he did a lot of evaluating in the three days in between Sunday night’s loss in Portland and Wednesday’s return to TD Garden against the Chicago Bulls, he determined it was too early to make any changes to the starting lineup that had the Celtics sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference as they returned from a 1-4 West Coast road trip.

After Gordon Hayward volunteered Monday to go to the bench, if the coach deemed it would help the team, Stevens stuck with the lineup of Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Jayson Tatum and Hayward, the former All-Star working his way back from last year’s catastrophic leg injury.

“The thing that I appreciate about our team,” Stevens said of Hayward’s offer, “is anybody would say that, and feel that, and be willing to do it. We have a bunch of good guys on this team. Whether it’s good or bad as far as coming back from the injury, if we deem that it’s the right thing then we’re going to do that."

After Hayward played a season-high 31 minutes Sunday in Portland, Stevens confirmed that he is no longer on the 25-minute restriction he carried through the first 12 games as he worked his way back from missing all but five minutes of last season following a dislocated ankle and fractured tibia.

“I don’t know that I can play him 35 or 40 [minutes],” Stevens said before Wednesday’s game. “But we usually don’t get there anyway. We don’t have anyone on our team that averaged more than 34.”

Hayward said on Monday that not only has the time restriction affected his ability to find a rhythm, but that the “odd chunks” of time he has spent on the court has hampered his teammates’ ability to getting into a flow with him. Brown said finding that flow has been a process for everyone on a deep team when minutes can be distributed differently from game to game.

“It definitely is a factor that there are so many guys [in the rotation] it is hard to necessary get a rhythm,” said Brown, who entered Tuesday night shooting 36.4 percent overall and 27.5 percent on 3-pointers. “But we’ve been playing together for two, three years. We’ve just got to continue to trust the offense, trust Brad, and trust each other.”

As of Wednesday, Stevens decided it was best to trust that overall improved play — and not a personnel shakeup — was the key to more complete efforts.

“We’ve had some tough starts,” the coach said. “Then we’ve had some great starts. It comes down to that we’ve either been bad or good. There’s been no in between. Let’s see if we can establish ourselves to play a little better. Then, as the season goes on, inevitably you are going to have to make even more of those decisions.

“Then, if you are really good, and you’re able to play in the playoffs, that’s pretty much a daily occurrence that you have to shuffle guys in and out.”

Taking a sick day

The Celtics were without one of their most consistent players this season on Wednesday as Marcus Morris sat out the game with an illness.

“I don’t know what the sickness is,” Stevens said. “I knew, though, that he was not feeling great when he left the practice gym [Monday]. Felt worse today.”

Morris was third on the team in scoring entering the night at 14.8 points, and third in rebounds a 7.0, in 25.7 minutes off the bench per game.

Dunn remains out

The Bulls were without former Providence College Kris Dunn once again on Wednesday as he continues to recover from an MCL sprain in his left knee. The timetable for the injury was listed at four to six weeks when he was diagnosed with the injury three weeks ago.

Dunn has played in just one game for the Bulls this season — scoring nine points with seven assists and four rebounds in 30 minutes of a loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Oct. 22.

Dunn had missed the first two games of the season due to the birth of his child.