Al Horford isn’t afraid to do his own dirty work.
When the opportunity is right, Horford is very happy to grab a rebound or a loose ball on one end of the floor and just bring it up himself, usually at a dead sprint, and often ending with an assist to a teammate.
“Something we really emphasized early in the season and he's sprinkled in at times,” Ime Udoka said after his team’s blowout win in Chicago. Horford was particularly effective in this game, once again flexing some grab-and-go action. “I think guys are still not as accustomed as they should be or used to it and getting out and running. A lot of times they're coming back to try to get the ball and he's waving them on, but we encourage those guys to get out and rebound and push it, and it puts tremendous pressure on defenses.”
Horford is closing in on his 36th birthday in June. For the first time in his life, he’d like to celebrate it while still playing basketball, which means he’ll have to make it to the NBA Finals. These Celtics might just give him that chance, and a lot of that has to do with Horford himself.
When Brad Stevens got Horford back from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Kemba Walker, it was expected that he might fill a bench role. At first, it made sense to think Horford as a backup to Robert Williams was the logical move. The Celtics had three starters in Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown ready to go. They had been grooming Williams for a starting role. And so the debate was whether the Celtics needed a stretch-four or a point guard.
Horford ended that debate pretty quickly by showing himself to be a major key to Udoka’s plans. Now, about six months later, Horford is still proving Udoka right by anchoring a switching defense where he is still effective against guards, still banging against the biggest bigs, and still ripping down boards and leading the break.
“Him at his age and how many years he’s been doing this, if he can do it, we’ve got fresher legs than him,” Smart said. “We should be able to go out there and do it. By him doing that and us being able to watch and take from that, it’s just tremendous inspiration for us, for everybody, especially these younger guys who have never been here or have only had a limited amount of time in the playoffs, to see somebody of Al’s stature and his credibility and the things that he’s done in this league, to go out there and still give everything he has and the effort that he brings, it’s kind of hard for you not to.”
Horford is still producing. His 2-point field goal percentage is 57.3% this season, second-highest of his career. His 7.7 rebounds per game are his highest total since he was a 27 year old in Atlanta. His 1.3 blocks per game is a tick above his career average. Against Chicago, he was 7-7 from the field while dropping 17 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a blocked shot. This isn’t some fluke. He’s massively important to this team.
But it’s those grab-and-go moments where he really hammers the point home. It’s when Horford, who has played twice as long in the league as his next most-senior teammate Marcus Smart, does his impression of the team’s point guard that we see just how much he’s defying Father Time.
“There are times that I’m looking to just kick it ahead, give it to a guy and have them start the break and make a play,” Horford said. “Then there are just some other times that I just feel I need to take it and create something. … I think that it’s a good balance. Sometimes I’ll try to be aggressive, put pressure, try to see if I can get a guy an easy shot.”
The more easy shots he gets his teammates, the closer the Celtics will get to having birthday cake in the locker room in June. If things go the way Horford hopes, it’ll be something they can wash down a couple weeks later with some champagne.
There's a lot of work left to do before Boston can think about getting there. The 50-win Celtics have put themselves in a position where they can dream about things like this, but never will two months seem so far away in an NBA schedule. Thursday night’s results alone can either derail or help them; no one knows which it will be yet.
Horford is confident that his team’s penchant for blowing out opponents is the sign that Boston can tack 16 more wins onto their regular-season total.
“When I look at our guys and they call timeouts and I see it in their eyes. Everybody's locked in,” he said. “We understand that we need to, we can't relax … We keep playing the right way, and when you do that, you put yourself in a good position."