Horford, C’s roll into break
Leave Pistons in foul mood
It was too late to make much of a difference, but the look on Al Horford’s face begged an obvious question.
Really?
Blake Griffin was on the floor for a prolonged period of time with 3:36 left, and the officiating crew was checking video replay to see if Horford should be awarded a Flagrant 1 foul for their collision, which he was.
“Blake is a great actor. He’s a great actor,” said the Celtics center. “I was going for the ball, and he sold it well. So yeah. I don’t think that was a flagrant foul.”
So this was Horford’s toll — a technical foul Tuesday night in Philadelphia as a result of his ongoing joust with Joel Embiid, and last night’s flagrant, though his main tussle was with Andre Drummond.
Significantly as a result of Horford’s work against two night’s worth of bruising matchups, the Celtics are going into the All-Star break on a two-game winning streak, including last night’s 118-110 win over the Pistons.
Embiid, who later earned a $25,000 fine for his expletive-laden takedown of the officiating, and Drummond, who was never truly a factor despite his 21-point, 17-rebound double-double, are what passes in the NBA for heavy lifting.
And Horford can honestly say he pressed his share, pulling the Celtics out of the gloom of back-to-back losses to the Lakers and Clippers last weekend.
“That’s tough, no question. We didn’t have shootaround in Philly because coach wanted us to get as much rest as we could,” he said. “I appreciated that because I needed every ounce to go against these two guys. Just focus on the recovery aspect of it when I have these kinds of games. Get rest, eat as well as I can, that way I can go out and perform in two tough matchups.”
This included some of Horford’s finest offensive work of the season, beginning with 23 points, eight rebounds and five assists in Philadelphia and concluding with a near-triple double of 17 points, a season-high 14 boards and eight assists last night.
“I think, physically, I actually feel really good,” said Horford. “I just think mentally, it’ll be nice for a couple days for all of us just to get away and get some more energy heading into the second half of the season.”
When last seen on the parquet, the Celtics were booed heartily on their way to the locker room, and a weekend of soul searching.
So last night’s question involved follow-through, and parlaying Tuesday night’s win into something inspiring enough for an angst-free break.
At least now, the Celtics can head into the hiatus without a haunted edge. The Celtics, tied with Philadelphia for fourth place in the Eastern Conference, pulled within a game of third-place Indiana — a loser to Milwaukee.
From Horford’s performance to Marcus Smart’s second half eruption, including four 3-pointers in the third quarter, the Celtics withstood some late sloppiness to pull out their second straight win.
Gordon Hayward got the start in place of Terry Rozier, sidelined with an illness, and in turn the fill-in starter while Kyrie Irving recovers from a sprained right knee.
Inserted into the starting lineup, Hayward continued his slow recovery, this time with 18 points and eight assists. Though he plans to remain home in Wellesley with his young family and do rehab work on his left leg, Hayward also has to like what he is seeing.
“I think it’s just sometimes we switch up the lineups a lot and there’s been times over the course of the season where I’ve played with all the guys so I think we’re used to switching up lineups, guys are coming in and out and rotations are sometimes different,” Hayward said of his start. “I think that helps when guys go in and out but we’ve also dealt with some injuries over the course of the year too, so guys have been able to kind of adjust on the fly.
“I think it hasn’t been a perfect season for us,” he said. “It’s been some ups and downs and I think you can say that for everybody individually and collectively. I think it’s good the way we ended going into the break. Definitely build some momentum. Before this we had a couple of tough losses — I think that’s kind of been our season, some tough losses and two good wins for us. We’re trying to get ready for the end of the year and hopefully we can play our best basketball.”