With Jrue Holiday sidelined due to a right elbow sprain, Al Horford slid into the starting lineup in Boston’s 125-117 win over the Atlanta Hawks.
It’s become standard for Horford this season. He’s been there to fill the gap in the starting lineup whenever someone has been sidelined. Even though he was expected to mainly come off the bench after the Celtics acquired Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday in the offseason, Horford’s ended up playing more of a hybrid role.
Wednesday night’s win over the Hawks marked Horford’s 42nd game this season. Of those 42 games, Horford has started 21. Moving from the starting lineup to the bench isn’t a role all players can handle. In Horford’s case, you would expect that transition to be even more difficult, considering he is 37 years old and had come off the bench just 12 times in his career, starting in 1,168 of his 1,180 career games entering the season.
For a team whose foundation is built on the idea of ‘sacrifice,’ nobody embodies that more than Horford. The 6-foot-9 big man simply does whatever his team needs, regardless of his role on any given night, with no complaints — just consistent, positive results.
Wednesday night was no different.
Against the team that drafted him back in 2007, the big man flirted with a triple-double, scoring 14 points, snagging eight rebounds, and dishing out a team-high eight assists. It marked the third time this season that Horford led the team in assists. Additionally, he was active on the defensive end, contesting a game-high 14 shots with four blocks and two steals.
“This is the ultimate compliment – you know what you’re getting,” Joe Mazzulla said on Horford postgame. “When you have people in the NBA, when you have guys that [you] know what you’re getting every single night, it’s the ultimate compliment. And he’s that guy. You know what you’re getting every day in practice. You know what you’re getting in the locker room. You know what you’re getting on the court.”
Horford’s fingerprints were all over Wednesday night’s win. Especially in the second quarter when he erupted for 11 points, snagged three rebounds, had an assist, a steal, and two blocks. His takeover was headlined by a steal of Trae Young, resulting in a transition dunk.
“I thought his play tonight kind of inspired us,” Mazzulla said. “Just chipping away at winning play after winning play, and it was great to see him be aggressive on the offensive end.”
Although he didn’t score a bucket in the second half, Horford was still impactful, registering four rebounds, a team-best five assists, a steal, and two blocks.
It was Horford who served up the assist on the Derrick White triple that gave Boston its first double-digit lead of the night early in the fourth quarter – pump-faking a defender before wrapping a bounce pass around to a wide-open White in the corner.
“A lot of the times, there is more joy for me when I’m able to find somebody and have them, you know, either finish at the rim or hit a three or something,” Horford said on his eight assists postgame. “I enjoy that. That’s the type of basketball that I like to play.”
That unselfishness does not go unnoticed by his teammates. They know he is a special player and is as steady as it gets.
“He’s open to whatever the team needs on a given night from him. [He has] a constant impact on the game with his poise,” Jayson Tatum said postgame. “Al does it all. [He is] the piece that kind of holds all of us together. We wouldn’t be at this point without him.”
With a team littered with stars, it could be easy to overlook the fact that Horford is a five-time All-Star himself and has consistently made an impact in any way he can. As Tatum said, the Celtics would not be where they are without Horford’s contributions.
“One of the things that I always try to do is just really impact how I can help the team, and how I can help put us in postion to win games,” Horford said.
It’s hard to believe Horford will turn 38 in just a few months. The way he plays, you would never know — he’s constantly bringing high activity on both ends of the floor. And as Boston aims for Banner 18, Horford will be a significant part of that puzzle.
“Al is amazing. That’s all you can really say about Al,” White said. “He does so many things for us on the court, off the court, that just help us win games. He’s amazing.”
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