Karalis: Al Horford finds a way to deliver on a night he knew Boston needed more than a normal game

Pro athletes live a whole lifetime over about 15 years or so. They come in as babies, hit their prime a few years later, turn the corner in their early 30s, and are ready for shuffleboard and canasta by 35. If they're lucky, they get to retire on top of their games and listen to people crafting their own obituary before turning 40. 

So when it comes to talking about soon-to-be 38-year-old Al Horford doing what he did to close out the Cavs in Game 5 at TD Garden, there is an added sense of amazement that Grandpa had the legs to make it happen. 

“(He’s) 37 but I think his body is 27 it looks like out there,” Derrick White said after Horford’s 22-point, 15-rebound, five-assist, four-block night. “He's just everywhere. Just does everything for us. He's been big-time for us every game I've been here. Tonight was huge."

The Celtics had once again struggled to get separation from a Cavs team missing Donovan Mitchell, Caris LeVert, and, again, Jarrett Allen. Horford recognized it because he’s seen it as much as we have. So he decided he had to take action himself. 

“I just saw that we weren’t where we needed to be as a group, it was like you have to do something,” he said. “I just wanted to bring that energy to our group and the group was able to feed off it and we all just continued to play, the guys continued to trust in me because the way (the Cavs) were designing everything was for me to shoot the ball or make plays through me. So the guys just did a great job … time after time, finding me and just having confidence in me.”

Horford didn’t exactly inspire confidence in his shooting right away. He missed his first shot, the eleventh straight 3-pointer he’d missed in this series. That seemed to validate the Cavs’ game plan, but Horford kept shooting, and eventually, the shots fell. He tied a career-high with six made 3-pointers and set a new career-high in attempts with 13 (his previous high was 10). 

“We had a great opportunity here at home to handle this,” Horford said. “I knew it was going to take a lot more than just playing a normal game.”

But more than the 3-pointers, it was the hustle plays. It was the defense. It was the energy. It’s a job generally left to a young pest like Payton Pritchard or a “stay ready” guy summoned from bench purgatory to change the flow of a game. It’s not usually Horford’s lane, but he owned it.

“The one play in particular when he saved the ball out of bounds in the last two minutes of the second quarter, it just gave us that extra possession and pumped our crowd up, pumped our team up,” Jayson Tatum said. “Those plays are so meaningful.” 

The Celtics posted a photo of Horford making that save. He looked like Zeus rising in fury, summoning a lightning bolt to smite an enemy.

Maybe there was also a little revenge there against Dean Wade for that game a few months ago. That would be a very Zeus thing to do. Zeus was also up there in years, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by the thunder Horford wrought. 

He was also known for disguising himself as something else when he wanted to be mischievous on earth. In Game 5, Horford was disguised as his younger self. And maybe that's harder to do for him in 2024, but he can still find it from time to time.

“He truly does do whatever it takes for the team to be better,” Tatum said. Tatum is as in awe of Horford as anyone, and he has been for a long time. And sure, Horford inspired Tatum to do things that contributed to this win, but he’s also inspiring Tatum to do things that could make him a future Al Horford someday. 

“Al’s like a brother to me, someone I love dearly,” Tatum said. “I’ve watched how professional he is, how he carries himself, how he takes care of his body. I stole a lot of things from Al throughout my career, just having a routine every single day, knowing whether it’s a game day or an off day or a practice day, having a plan of what are you going to do to get better today. Whether it’s lifting weights, getting on the bike or recovery. So I’ve watched Al do all those things to a T and keep his body in perfect shape and conditioned to be at this stage in his career and have a major role on our team.”

With less than a minute to go, Horford lined up one last 3-pointer, buried it, and erupted in wild celebration. He was subbed out at the next dead ball, but not before walking to the middle of the floor, arms raised, soaking in the well-earned adulation from a wild Garden crowd. 

“It's special when you're here at the Garden,” Horford said. “This is something I just don't take for granted, the energy of the fans. Our fans, they love the Celtics. They want us to play hard. They want us to play the right way and I just felt very connected with them tonight. With the way that we were playing, that we got it going, I felt like there was that connection there. And there was just a few times that I wanted to be embraced by that in those moments. And that fuels me. That fuels our team. So it was pretty special”

Who knows how many more special performances Horford has left in him, but he found one when Boston needed it. He found something all the 20-somethings on the team didn’t have and came up with a fiery, emotional performance that will go down as a career highlight.

“Tonight you saw his gift,” Joe Mazzulla said. “His gift is just passion, inspiration, toughness, competitive nature. And obviously those games are tough. The other team is fighting for their lives, and you’re trying to play as hard as you can, and you don’t want to make mistakes, and whatever the case may be, but that’s who Al is as a person. You saw his personality, so I thought he was tremendous.”