Horford handles heavy load in win
Al Horford did a little bit of everything in his 27 minutes on the parquet yesterday at the Garden.
The Celtics forward shot 8-of10 from the floor and scored 20 points with four rebounds and six assists in his team’s 108-83 obliteration of the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals before a boisterous sellout crowd of 18,624. Game 2 is tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. “It was really good, both ends of the floor,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens. “He covered for us defensively. He did a great job when he switched and he did a great job when he was in help.
“He’s our rock. He’s the guy we really lean on.”
Horford extended his streak of games with double-digit scoring to 13 playoff games, and increased his postseason scoring average this season to 17.2.
Eliminated by the Cavaliers in three of the last four postseasons, the Celtics needed a statement win in the opener and Horford’s steady influence helped make that possible from the onset.
“Al’s important to everything we do,” said Stevens. “Every minute of every day, whether it is the walkthrough before, the meeting before, practice or film session . . . . I thought we all played well but I thought Al was certainly very good.”
Stevens could be guilty of an understatement with “very good.”
Horford was the best player on the floor in the first quarter, an amazing accomplishment considering Cavaliers superstar LeBron James was on the parquet at the same time.
The Celtics set the tenor of the game with a 25-2 run in the first that had Cleveland playing catch up for the remainder of the contest. Horford was 4-of-4 in the frame with 11 points and performed with assurance while guarding and being guarded by Cavs center Kevin Love. The Celtics exited the first quarter with a 36-18 lead and held the Cavs to 35 points in the half.
“I think it was our energy defensively,” said Horford in reference to the 25-2 run. “I felt like we really fed off a lot of our crowd and then on offense we were taking good shots.
“We were really moving the ball and really taking really good looks and that helped. We were knocking them down.”
James hit the second of two free throws to put the Cavs up 7-4 with 9:18 to play. Marcus Morris countered with a 3-point play that instigated the Celts definitive surge.
After Jaylen Brown put the Celtics up 13-7 with a turnaround jumper, Horford binged on eight straight points that included an alley-oop from Brown and a trey from 26 feet.
“You’ve got to give credit to coach because he ends up making the adjustments and being able to key in on the playoffs, whichever the matchup is,” said Horford.