Horford gets it together
Escapes post-break rough patch
CHICAGO — Earlier in the day, Al Horford vowed to break out of his recent recession. Then he went out against the Bulls and proved himself a man of his word.
The veteran big man hit 4-of-6 shots in the first quarter and 6-of-8 overall in 22 minutes as the Celtics battered their hosts, 105-89. Along the way, his seventh point to be exact, was the 10,000th of his career.
“Lot of years in the league,” he said with a smile. “Year 11, so that’s what happens when you play a lot of years.”
As for getting his offense in gear, he said, “It’s game to game. You know, can’t overreact too much. We’ve had a couple of these games since All-Star break that they’ve been like this, you know, haven’t played in the fourth, and we’ve been able to dominate teams. Tonight I was able to get in a rhythm earlier, and I felt good.
“I think the emphasis was really trying to get me the ball, try to get it going. And the guys got me the ball, and I was able to get some good looks early.”
Horford’s game never should never be defined solely by numbers, a fact supported overwhelmingly by the league’s coaches and players. But there’s no question the digits had been singing a loud, off-key tune since the All-Star break.
After averaging 13.3 points on 50.8 percent shooting (43.6 percent on 3-pointers) with 7.7 rebounds and 5.1 assists in his 54 appearances leading up to the game in Los Angeles — in which he was a participant selected by the coaches — Horford’s stat line had plunged.
In the five games preceding last night, he averaged 7.2 points on 31 percent shooting (35.7 percent on treys) with 5.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists.
The Celtics won four of those five games, and Horford was a plus-12, plus-13 and plus-27 in three of them. He was even against Memphis but minus-22 in Houston (Kyrie Irving was minus-17 that night), with some key misses and turnovers.
While he maintains a certain value just by being on the floor, facilitating the pick-and-roll and needing to be guarded on the perimeter, which opens the driving lanes for others, something clearly has been off.
“I think personally I’m not playing at the level that I want to be playing at and doing the things that I can,” Horford said before his plus31 rating against the Bulls. “And through all that, I always have to make sure that I stay consistent in what I do and bring to the team.”
He then turned prophetic, saying, “I know that I’ll get it back going again. I just try to take it a game at a time. Tonight will be a good opportunity for us to come out and be able to get a win against a team that plays well.”
Brad Stevens lauded Horford for hitting his milestone, calling the 10,000 “quite an accomplishment obviously for a guy who scoring doesn’t matter to. I think that says it all. He’s going to have his nights where he scores the ball. He’s going to have nights where he doesn’t get as many looks because of the way they’re guarding him. He doesn’t care. He’ll just do whatever it takes to win.
“If Al is open, we’re going to get him the ball. If Al’s at the rim, we want to get him the ball. But Al is OK also being a facilitator and making plays for everybody else. Al’s a lot more concerned with how our team plays than his stat line.”