For maybe the primary time in 4 video games, all the pieces appeared prefer it was going the Brooklyn Nets’ means. Behind within the collection three video games to none, and having trailed by as many as 15 factors within the do-or-die Recreation 4 contest towards the sweep-minded Boston Celtics, Kevin Durant and firm had clawed their means inside three factors. And should you’re the Celtics, regardless of the strong resilience you’ve placed on show for the higher a part of half a season, that’s a nightmare state of affairs. The Nets might lack offensive choices galore, however the choices they do have — the All-Professional Durant-Kyrie Irving tandem, specifically — are formidable and able to swinging a collection of their path off the power of a single triple. We’ve seen them do it earlier than; who’s to say they wouldn’t pull it off once more?
In fact, although, there’s the factor of human error at play. On the free throw line, down three, Durant had an opportunity to trim the ever-fading Celtics’ result in only one. That meant that the Nets might foul Boston, hope they missed a free throw on the opposite finish, and have an opportunity to tie or win the sport. However Durant missed the again finish, leaving Boston with a two-point lead and an opportunity to presumably seal the sport.
The ball landed in Jaylen Brown’s arms, and he was virtually actually about to be fouled. As an alternative, he lobbed a harmful go ahead to Marcus Good, who was streaking down court docket, hoping maybe to ice the sport or dribble away a while. Brown’s go simply made it past Durant’s 7-foot-5-inch wingspan and into Good’s breadbasket, and naturally, Good charged towards the rim. The resurgent Blake Griffin met him as he rose for a layup, inflicting a contested layup to doink off the again of the rim, and instantly, the ball — and the sport — was up for grabs.
Who else was there however Al Horford.
From the beginning of the possession, Horford didn’t panic. He ran with Good, ready to obtain a go on the break or connect himself to one of many Nets’ many hopeful rebounders, boxing them out. He carried out a textbook aspect shuffle to get the precise place he’d have to comply with up a possible miss, sealing off Irving, and having extra momentum than Durant or every other Brooklyn participant touring from halfcourt might have had. Horford jumped, snatched the ball with two arms, and earlier than coming again down, calmly laid it in, giving Boston a 113-109 lead with 13.7 seconds remaining. It was the lead they wouldn’t relinquish, as they formally completed off the Nets in 4 video games, 116-112.
The possession was without delay the one which sealed the collection and a microcosm of the collection in its entirety; when all hung within the stability, each actually and figuratively, Al Horford was there to wash up the mess, to make sure that nothing would bounce Brooklyn’s means, and all the pieces Boston’s. In a collection that required nightly MVP-like offensive output from Jayson Tatum, All-Star defensive efforts from Good, Brown, and the remainder, and impression performances from bench contributors like Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard at each potential flip, it’s Horford who walks away its most essential participant — its MVP, for all intents and functions. With out him, it’s a collection which may have lasted quite a bit longer than 4 video games. With out him, the Boston Celtics may be nowhere.
Thanks partially to Horford, the Celtics are the primary workforce within the playoffs to advance to the second spherical, having handily defeated an opponent a good group of nationwide media members and followers alike assumed they’d fall to in six or seven video games, given all of the unknowns. What these predictors failed to contemplate had been all the knowns, the givens, the certain issues that Boston had confirmed itself able to over the course of the common season’s ultimate half. It’s been overwhelmed to loss of life — very like most of Boston’s opponents through the stretch — nevertheless it bears repeating: after the All-Star break, the Celtics boasted the NBA’s finest record (17-5), point differential (12.4 and the only double-digit figure of its kind), offensive rating (122.6), and the third-best defensive rating (109.9). They had been a juggernaut in virtually each single sense of the phrase, and so they continued those self same traits by means of this first-round collection, nonetheless temporary it was.
You could pin a lot of the credit score on Jayson Tatum’s lapel. I received’t fault you for that, although I hope you’ll grant me the identical reprieve once I credit score Horford with filling maybe an important in any collection: that of the stabilizer. Horford by no means didn’t be the bellwether of Boston’s stability all through all 4 video games, and at loads of key factors in every. When main 6-2 early within the first quarter of Recreation 4 — presumably a novel sizzling begin, however one with the potential to be sustained for 4 quarters — he caught a lofting go from Tatum, turned to the ring, and banked in a fadeaway hook to maintain the great occasions rolling. Later, with Tatum fouled out, Horford remained a stout presence defensively and made the layup that each one however pushed Boston forward for good.
Extra broadly, Horford stuffed the footwear of the lone large man for the Celtics on this collection. Even supposing Daniel Theis acquired starter’s minutes, he was kind of a non-factor in three of 4 video games, the outlier being his 15-point, six-rebound (and 5 foul) efficiency in Recreation 2. Theis ended up scoring just 8.5 points and pulling down 6.5 rebounds in 22 minutes per game, respectable numbers, however well-short of game-altering.
And whereas Robert Williams in the end ended up taking part in within the collection’ ultimate two video games in Brooklyn, he (rightly) managed simply 14.9 minutes per, and scored simply 2.5 factors whereas rebounding 3.5 misses per contest. Not like Theis, Williams was a non-factor as a result of he was getting used tentatively, and wanted to work his means again into the swing of issues. The Celtics might have used each of them. Because of Horford — to the tune of 13 points and 7.5 rebounds in 32 minutes per game — they didn’t really want to.
In fact, no workforce can fall again on that type of insurance coverage full-time, not even these seemingly inhuman Boston Celtics. However with a participant like Al Horford within the middle of the huddle, they’re virtually afforded the posh, if not the insurance coverage, of getting a participant who operates like a metronome. He determines the tempo, and he recurrently steadies it.
When issues might look like getting bushy, he additionally serves as a supply of calmness, the form of paternal presence that ensures you that inhaling by means of your nostril and out by means of your mouth can proper all wrongs. Cameras usually catch him motioning his arms in a means that mimics somebody making an attempt to quiet a crowd, however what he’s truly doing is making an attempt to appease his youthful teammate’s anxious power. In conditions proficient youth may deem dire, Horford is the one who makes certain everybody stays grounded.
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Picture by Evan Yu/NBAE by way of Getty Pictures
Final night time, the cameras landed on him following his game-deciding putback, and as a substitute of discovering him pumping his fists in celebration or mean-mugging the group, they noticed him beeline for Jaylen Brown. Moments earlier than Horford’s layup, Brown had launched the almost-errant go upcourt to Marcus Good, the one which led to Good’s missed layup after simply making it past Kevin Durant’s 7-foot-5-inch wingspan and into Good’s arms. If Durant ideas that go — or worse, intercepts it — who is aware of what the Nets create for themselves within the frenzy.
However he didn’t. That was the purpose Horford hoped to make when he rushed to Brown, embraced him, and patted him repeatedly on the pinnacle, reassuring him that he made play, that nothing went improper, and that their Celtics had been seconds from transferring onto the following spherical. It matches Horford’s psyche completely: the mediator between panic and composure. It’s what he’s been ever since he first arrived in Boston again in 2016, and since he returned for an additional go this season.
Al Horford won’t be the Celtic receiving MVP votes on the finish of the season, however whenever you single out an important phrase in that acronym — “precious” — it’s arduous to consider a participant that honors its that means extra. I default to calling him a sage veteran as a result of he retains giving me causes to. I wouldn’t be doing it if he didn’t match the invoice, even supposing he has been previous(er) and sensible for lengthy earlier than his stints with the Celtics. But on a workforce dominated and in the end led by youthful expertise, Horford stays a sage drive; he’s arguably Boston’s most essential presence, if not participant total. And he’ll proceed to be precisely that for nonetheless lengthy their postseason run continues.
