Veteran leadership emerges
Celtics turn to Horford with season on line, and he delivers
Al Horford has tapped into a level of his game during the playoffs that many thought he’d lost at age 35.
It reached a new height in Game 4 during the Celtics’ 116-108 win over the Bucks on Monday night. The fivetime All-star scored 16 of his playoff career-high 30 points in the fourth quarter to help Boston tie the Eastern Conference semifinal series with the defending NBA champions at two games apiece.
Equally important, the Celtics have reclaimed home-court advantage as the series shifts back to Boston for Game 5 on Wednesday.
After spending a challenging season in Oklahoma City last year, Horford was packaged in the Thunder’s trade for Kemba Walker, returning Horford to where he last earned All-star honors in the 2017-18 season.
Horford said he feels like he’s experiencing the fruits of an offseason in which he focused on being ready to play meaningful games again. He has gone from averaging 10.2 points and 7.7 rebounds during the regular season to 15.9 points and 9.4 rebounds in the postseason.
“That’s from sitting at home,” Horford said. “That’s from watching the playoffs, not knowing what my future was holding and really just hoping to have an opportunity to be in this type of environment.”
The resurgence has coincided with Boston needing someone to step up after big man Robert Williams III was sidelined for the second time this postseason, sitting out Game 4 with soreness in his surgically repaired left knee. He is questionable for Game 5.
After missing an opportunity to take a 3-1 series lead, Bucks guard Wesley Matthews said there’s no time to sulk.
“If it was easy to get to the semis, every team would get to the semis. It’s hard. It’s hard as hell,” he said. “At the same time, you can’t hold your head too high, can’t hold your head low at all, and you’ve got to bounce back.”
The Grizzlies are in an injury pickle of their own, needing to try to stave off elimination without Ja Morant, who the team said Tuesday is doubtful for the remainder of the postseason after an MRI and further evaluation revealed a bone bruise in his injured right knee.
The NBA’S most improved player and All-star guard had been averaging 38.3 points a game in this series but sat out Game 4.
The Golden State Warriors head to Memphis needing one victory to advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2019. That’s when they lost in the NBA Finals before missing the last two postseasons. That’s been a long wait for a franchise that won three championships in the last decade.
“Wednesday is going to be the hardest one yet,” forward Klay Thompson said. “It always is, the closeout. We have to put this behind us and put together a good game plan.”
Even without Morant, Memphis still led for all but 45.7 seconds of Game 4 before Golden State rallied for a 101-98 victory and grabbed a 3-1 series lead. It was the first time Memphis had been held under 100 points this postseason, and now the Grizzlies return home trying to push this series back to San Francisco for Game 6 on Friday.
“We’re back home,” Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. said. “We’ve got our fans. It’s going to be loud, so we’re excited to get back home and go play again, man. We have another chance to play. They’re a good team. We obviously know how the game went. Yeah, we get another chance at it.”