Whether it's as a starter or off the bench, Al Horford still an example for his Celtics teammates

Joe Mazzulla was unusually forthright with his starting lineup before the game, announcing that Al Horford would be coming off the bench. 

It’s an interesting decision from Mazzulla, who could certainly simply be looking at how certain lineups work versus other options. Considering that he started Horford in their first preseason game and brought Jrue Holiday off the bench, it’s still not clear how this will ultimately go.

But no matter what, someone with a strong argument to start will begin games on the bench. 

“At some point this year everybody’s gonna have to,” said Jayson Tatum, maybe the lone exception to that rule. “We’ve probably got six starters. And you can only play five, only five guys can finish the game. So between those six guys, any given night somebody might come off the bench, somebody might not finish, and it’s on all of us to understand that whoever’s night it is, it's for the better of the team.”

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On this night, it was Horford’s turn. It’s an unusual place for Horford to be considering he’s started 1003 of 1013 regular season games in his career. Aside from the debacle in Philadelphia that saw him come off the bench six times, his only other second-unit stints came in his rookie year. 

For what it’s worth, Horford found a seam in the media coverage and slipped out of the locker room with his son before talking about coming off the bench. But he did address it on media day.

“For me, we have such a special group here. We’re all ready to put in the work to get started, and to put ourselves in the best position,” he said. “So that’s something Joe will have to address and determine, but for me, I’m excited to be in this position and have this opportunity with our team.”

Sounds like a guy open to anything. And why not? First off all, he was flying out there. He was the catalyst right away, playing six minutes in the first quarter and still finishing a plus-11. He was a team-best plus-17. He was hustling like the game meant something. 

“We had three clips at halftime and all three were him and the possessions that he had and the energy that he brought,” Mazzulla said after the win. “So regardless of who's starting, who's not, Al’s a critical piece of our team and our locker room, and he seems to be the guy that always makes the right play on both ends of the floor, and we can't take that for granted.”

No, you can’t. In fact, Horford’s willingness to take this role without complaint could be something that helps keep this team motivated. Horford could certainly pull the vet card if he wanted. He could make things difficult like so many aging stars who have scoffed at the mere suggestion of second-unit roles. But that's not who Horford is. Frankly, there doesn’t seem to be much of that kind of attitude anywhere on the team.

“We're all willing to take whatever the situation is gonna be, whoever is gonna start whoever, whatever,” Kristaps Porzingis said. “Honestly, I don't think these guys care, but all we care about is winning and playing the right way and we're gonna trust Joe with those kinds of things and the rotations. There's gonna be some nights somebody's gonna rest and the starting five is gonna look different. So we're prepared for it all.”

We love to talk about vibes, and they’ve been good around here for a while. There isn’t a jerk in sight on this team. But this year’s team is a little different. The intensity is higher. As Tatum said after the game, “practices have been hard as shit.” I don’t want to go overboard in preseason, but we’ve all been in situations where things have felt different. 

And this feels different. 

The team is young but not really that young anymore. The stars are proven. The contracts are in hand (or will be soon). No one is fighting for anything besides big numbers in the W column. Call it maturity or reality finally setting in, but it’s definitely different. And if Horford has to be the guy who keeps his warmups on after the anthem, so be it. 

“I have the utmost respect for Al,” Tatum said. “If Al can come off the bench at this stage of his career, nobody should have anything to say if you’re the guy that’s coming off the bench or Joe takes you out of the game or if you don’t finish. And everybody has to have a team-first mindset to accomplish what we’re trying to do.”