Al Horford Is A True Gift From The Basketball Gods And Frankly Is Never Allowed To Retire

Brian Babineau. Getty Images.

After the embarrassing double collapse that took place Friday night against the Cavs, I think everyone needed a pick-me-up performance on Sunday. The challenge, avoiding 3 straight losses for the first time in 2 years, was going to come down to whether or not the undermanned Celtics (down KP and Jrue) would be able to take down the clear-cut best player in the world, Nikola Jokic, and a Nuggets team that has been playing better as of late.  

It's no secret that the 2024-25 Celts have been what I would call "terrible" at home this season, even with this win. Just 19-11 on the season, only the Mavs who basically lost their entire roster to injury + traded their franchise player have more home losses (12) of any team with at least 19 home wins. The point is, the time has come to start stringing home wins together as the playoffs get closer and closer, and a bounce back game against that type of challenger is certainly nothing the sneeze at. 

The first time these two teams played, Jokic wasn't active so you couldn't really put any stock into that game. He is their everything, so him not being around changes what type of team you're facing. Now with him in the lineup and the Celts without one of their 7fters, it could have been a disaster. Usually in games like that, Jokic has his way with you and that's all she wrote.

But this time? 

The Celts did about as good a job as humanly possible of making Jokic's impact be a normal level and not a God level. His +/- in this game was 0. That's the first huge step in beating the Nuggets, because we all know what happens when he goes to the bench. All you have to do is find a way to at least be even in the Jokic minutes and that's usually good enough.

I don't want to go overboard and say this was a cathartic win, but in some ways it was. The Nuggets narrowly won both of these meetings last season, by 2 and 6 points, everything that happened on Friday night, shit everything that happened in this game down the stretch and how the Celts had to find a way to win, are all things I think everyone from the players to the fans to the coaching staff needed to experience. To do it while down 40% of your starting lineup only makes it more impressive.

With that said, let us begin.

The Good

- I'm not sure how you could think we'd be starting anywhere other than our beloved Al Horford. Over the course of 82 games, there are going to be a handful where Al empties the tank and puts up Vintage Al Horford type shit. Cavs games, Bucks games, every Sixers game, and a game like yesterday are when it's very clear Al is unloading the clip because at the end of the day, that's what the team needed

Let's be very clear about something here. Al Horford, at 38, went band for band with Nikola Jokic in this game. It makes no sense to outsiders and all the sense in the world to us who have been watching Horford for years now. This is what he does. This is why he's a champion. This is why he's a Knight. When you need Al Horford, Al Horford is there for you. Always.

It wasn't a situation where Al had Jokic in jail, don't be silly. Jokic had 14 points on 6-9 shooting in the 41 possessions being guarded by Jokic. Nobody stops Jokic in terms of individual defense. But what Al did provide was the offensive output from the center spot (19 points) to match Jokic's 20 points. That's a spot you usually have reserved for KP, and the surprising part was that Al only made 1 3PM! He was 6-11 on 2PA and 4-4 from the line, and I can't remember a time we saw Horford take that many 2s and FTA in the same game. Young Al maybe, but this version? His role is to hang out and knock down open C&S 3PA, but last night he gave the team everything.

When you see a guy at his age repeatedly sprint the floor on the break, it's hard for that not to rub off on everyone else. If this old guy can go balls to the wall, then so can the younger players. This is a dude who played like 39 minutes against the Cavs and then 36 hours later played 34 while battling the BITW. All at age 38!!

There's a lot of discussion as to who the Al replacement will eventually be, and unfortunately this is an impossible task that I'm not even sure the genius of Brad Stevens can solve. There is no replacing Al Horford. That player does not exist, whether you're talking about a skillset perspective, a leader perspective, an overall human perspective etc. They don't make multiple Al Horford's.

So what's the solution? Easy. Al Horford is simply not allowed to retire. I'm sure his family misses him, but he still has way too much left in the tank to consider hanging it up. Even if the versions moving forward are like 50% of the Al Horford we're seeing now, that's still more than good enough. 

- When these two teams played earlier in the season, the Nuggets only scored 106 points. A total WELL below their season average (121.1,) common sense told you this was the result of not having Jokic on the floor. Considering he is their entire offense, that made sense.

Well, Jokic played yesterday. In fact, he played 39 minutes. The Nuggets scored 103 points. I don't think we can overstate how insane it is that a team missing their best rim protector and one of their best perimeter defenders held the Nuggets offense WITH Jokic to this

Considering they average 121.3 pts/poss on the season, I'd say this is rather impressive. 

The Nuggets had zero 30 point quarters, they shot under 50% from the floor and only 34% from deep, and a team that usually carves defenses up in the halfcourt was made mortal by Joe Mazzulla's approach. The Celts were great at crowding Jokic and taking away that option (just 15 FGA), they forced non-shooters to consistently beat them, which worked perfectly. A guy like Westbrook started 2-2, got confident, and then finished 1-11 (0-6).

If you're going to get a human level Jokic, then to beat the Celts you're going to have to bury 3s, and this is where the Nuggets' flaws start to show. Braun finished 2-8, MPJ 2-6, Westbrook 2-8, and Murray 2-7. You combine their shooting struggles with their league average at best defense, and that's sort of how you explain the Nuggets being 14-16 against good teams this season. 

In some ways, we saw Joe unleash a playoff defense approach to handling the Nuggets. Don't even worry about the non-shooters. Play the percentages, and make guys like Westbrook prove they can consistently execute over the course of 48 minutes. You're not stopping Jokic no matter what you do, so that's really the only way. Exploit their roster construction.

- It wasn't always pretty (5 TOs, a shit ton of paint misses in the 4th), but on a night where Tatum was definitely fatigued after what he was asked to do against CLE, Jaylen Brown stepped up and found a way to carry the offense early

Efficiency wise things were good enough at 6-15 (2-4), especially when you realize he smoked A FUCK TON of bunnies in the 4th quarter from about 3ft away, and perhaps one of the most impressive parts of Jaylen's night may have been his 8-9 from the FT line. 

I know he talked about his knee issue bothering him, but I'm also here to tell you Jaylen has been playing some of his best basketball of the season as of late. Over his last 12 games:

23.8 PTS | 6 REB | 4.6 AST | 60.5% TS

He's also shooting 81.7% from the FT line on 5.0 attempts during this run, and his turnovers are right around his season average at 2.8. Aside from the FT jump, it's impossible to ignore the passing leap we're also seeing from Jaylen this season. Yesterday was his 24th game of at least 4+ assists this season, and his 8th game of at least 7+. He had just 20 all of last season and then 5 in the playoffs.

His AST% of 22% is the highest of his career, as are his 4.7 AST.

Just think of what this means for an opposing defense. In one corner, you have Jayson Tatum, arguably the best passing wing we've seen since LeBron with his 26.3% AST% and 5.8 AST. Then, just when you think you get a break, here comes Jaylen with his 22% AST% and 4.7 AST. 

This is why I never really understood why so many Celts fans complain when Jaylen initiates or things run through him, especially when Tatum sits. He's having a fantastic playmaking season! His passing and offense creation for others has turned into a weapon! All while only having an 11% TOV% which is pretty much his career average. We're seeing a passing leap while not seeing TOs go up. That is MASSIVE.

- After being legitimate dogshit against the Cavs, the bench certainly redeemed themselves in this win. They won the bench scoring battle 28-11, and all of the main rotation bench guys (Queta, Pritchard, Hauser) were impactful

Their collective night is partially what makes the performance against the Cavs so annoying. An entire unit no-showing like that, at home, basically never happens. Yesterday this group being impactful when Jokic sat was big. and again, in a game where you're down almost 40 points of offense and Tatum is throwing up a stinker, the bench production is so important, especially when facing a good team.

I do wonder if Joe's decision to keep Hauser off the bench helped him bounce back because it got him back to his old role, although that probably also had to do with the Nuggets size leading Joe to go double big to start. Either way it works for me, I'm just happy we got back to seeing the bench shooters make their clean looks.

- Whenever these two teams played, if the game was close down the stretch those were usually situations where the Nuggets would thrive and the Celts would fall short. A lot of that is due to their shot profiles, because at the end of the day the Nuggets could just give the ball to Jokic who is the most efficient offensive player maybe ever. 

So imagine my surprise when this game found itself close in the final moments, when late game execution became paramount and it was the Celtics, not the Nuggets, who were better in those moments

A 3 point game with a minute left, we've seen the Nuggets pull those games out a billion times. It's what makes them so good. Meanwhile on the other end, we've been scarred with years of poor execution in those moments from the Celts. That's why I feel like this win was somewhat cathartic. The Celts beat the Nuggets at their own game.

It was the Nuggets who took more 3PA in this game. They took more overall shots, and made more overall shots.

So how did the Celts pull it out?

They got to the line by spamming 2pt FGA and out-executed the Nuggets in the clutch, by making 2s. The NBA can be weird sometimes, and it's important that you have the ability to win in a variety of ways. 

- After getting destroyed around the margins on Friday, the Celts were much, much better at those small details yesterday.

They won the rebounding battle 45-38, owned points in the paint 44-38, had more 2nd chance points 12-6, more fastbreak points 14-10, and trailed for pretty much the entire 48 minutes considering there was only 2 lead changes and 1 tie, with the Nuggets largest lead being just 1 point.

The Bad

- They pulled this win out, but let's not forget the reality that this was the second straight game we saw the Celtics be unable to maintain a 20 point lead. They didn't fully blow it yesterday like they did against CLE (got down to 3), and even if you accept that NBA teams are going to make runs over the course of 48 minutes, this is still something that needs to be figured out.

This team has too much talent to where we as fans can't even come close to the idea of trusting a 20 point lead. That's shit the Celtics of old would do, not this version. 

Considering the Celts had a 22 AND a 17 point lead against the Cavs and blew them both, and then they had another 20 point lead yesterday that got trimmed to 3 points late, you could make the case they blew 3 big leads in just 2 games. The annoying part is a lot of those runs to blow those leads came in the 3rd quarter with the Tatum + bench lineups.

You'll remember they were up 11 with around 2 minutes to go to end the 3rd against CLE, and a poor close from that lineup had that a 1 point game entering the 4th. 

Yesterday, it was a 15 point lead at 3:43 in the 3rd for the Tatum + bench lineup, and it closed 83-77. They finished 0-5 from the floor during this close, with this being Tatum's shot profile 

It did feel like in these last two 3rd quarters, the Celts offense fell into their bad "spam Tatum iso into midrange" offense, which is NEVER how this team should play. You could see Nuggets were fine with baiting Tatum into forcing isolation, because in a game like this where he was struggling offensively, that was the best course of action compared to letting the "others" beat you. 

- While this was easily one of Tatum's worst games of the season, I do think perspective is important. The "bad' games for Tatum are now 16/11/7 near triple doubles, which is pretty hilarious. At the same time, if you just compare Tatum's give a shit meter in what we saw vs CLE compared to what we saw vs DEN, they aren't even remotely close. This was a "coasting" type of performance from Tatum, which is some ways I understand.

Coming off 37 FGA and a 44% usage in the CLE loss where he wasn't rewarded at all for being aggressive, I don't find it all that surprising that Tatum mostly settled for 3s and midrange jumpers. 

I will say it's nice to see his rebounding get back to consistently being in double digits, and his playmaking/offense initiation was still elite, but it was very clear he did not have the legs in this game. That shit happens and I almost wouldn't hate finding a game to give him his much needed rest. This dude has not missed a game since before Christmas! It's March 3rd. 

- Only taking 46 3PA in their last 6 quarters is nowhere close to enough in my opinion. I suppose this is what can happen when you go iso heavy as opposed to moving the ball and driving/kicking, but it did feel like the Celts left some offense on the table in this win.

Add to it they missed about a billion point blank shots at the rim, when you look at their second half collapse against CLE an then the offensive process against DEN, what do you see?

Early in the games when the ball is moving, everyone is involved, and things are balanced, the Celts thrive. When things go more iso, there's less ball movement, things are not as balanced, leads get blown. It's not rocket science, it's something most Celts fans are able to understand, yet some prefer the latter style to the former. I just don't get it.

This team is about winning titles and being the best versions of themselves. To do that, the ball has to move. There has to be balance. If you become predictable in terms of where you are attacking from, you become easier to defend. 

- I know he's still new, but after his debut I'm not sure the Torrey Craig minutes have been all that good. He was the only minus bench player last night, he's missed his last 6 open 3PA, the defense has been fine, and the reboundinghas been fine. My point is, if he's not going to make open 3s, then why is he playing over a younger, more energetic Jordan Walsh who can also rebound and defend?

If we remove shooting from the equation, then I'd almost rather have the development minutes of the younger player. I get it's not a fair ask for a guy like Craig who just got here and gets spot minutes, but that's the role. You don't have the benefit of a consistent run to get a rhythm, that's the challenge. The idea is that Craig is good enough and has played enough basketball to where he can still be effective in that role, but a BIG part of that is knocking down open 3s. 

Again, it's VERY early. The dude has played 5 games. But 36/25% splits isn't exactly screaming that Craig should have this role no matter what. Jordan Walsh can definitely shoot 36/25% and I do think his development is more important moving forward. 

- Nobody, and I mean NOBODY is worse at throwing entry passes than your Boston Celtics. Pick a player, it doesn't matter. They simply cannot do it without turning the ball over

The Ugly

- If the Jays are going to have the ball as much as they do, they cannot keep turning the ball over at this rate. Of the 14 total team turnovers, the Jays were responsible for 11 of them.

6 for Tatum / 5 for Brown

The Tatum ones were especially bizarre because for whatever reason he couldn't stop throwing lazy cross court passes that were easily intercepted. Given how well he reads defenses, I found those to be pretty shocking. Over Tatum's last 4 games, he's averaging 4.8 TOs a game. Two separate 6 TOs performances. I mean, what are we doing here Jayson. Please take care of the ball. 

With Brown there are certain turnovers you expect. There are going to be some dribbling issues, maybe a travel here and there, which is basically what we got in this game. 

Another game where the Celts' lack of ball security led to another 15 points off TOs, a number that almost always gets them into trouble. You'll remember, that was the total in the Cavs game as well when they had another high turnover game. The main culprits being your two best players isn't exactly what I think any of us are looking for, and it's something that has to be cleaned up.

In a playoff game/series, that is the shit that loses you games you have no business losing. It's what as been the root of their collapses in the last two games. Make teams beat you in the halfcourt. Being careless with the basketball is only asking for easy buckets and a whole lot of trouble.

The good news is that the Celts held on, made the plays they needed to make down the stretch and finally secured the first win of this homestand. Things aren't getting all that easier with teams like POR/LAL/OKC coming to town during this stint, so while you take this win and move onto the next, I think we can all agree the Celts still have room to play even better.