BOSTON – After the Celtics took a timeout to stop a 10-0 Atlanta Hawks run early in the fourth quarter of Game 1 Saturday afternoon, Al Horford stepped into the huddle and got his teammates back on track.
“The emotional leader” of the team, as head coach Joe Mazzulla calls Horford, spoke with fervor in his voice and fire in his eyes, encouraging the rest of the group to tap back into the energy they had played with earlier in the game, now that their 31-point lead was down to 12.
Whatever the veteran big man said, must have worked, because the Celtics erupted out of that timeout with baskets on three straight possessions along with five consecutive forced misses on the defensive end.
In the blink of an eye, the Celtics were back up by 18 points, prompting Horford to playfully call a timeout for his former team.
From there, the C's cruised to a 112-99 victory and a 1-0 series lead.
“I was just making sure that the group locked back in, that we were focused, and that we got back to playing the way that we were,” Horford recounted following Monday’s practice. “And our group responded. We did what we had to do and did enough to put them away.”
Horford is often a man of few words and prides himself on being more of a lead-by-example type. However, when the time calls for it, his mouth will open. And so will his teammates’ ears.
"When he’s talking, it’s all toward winning,” Jaylen Brown said earlier in the season. “Al is only geared towards winning. Anytime he does bring up or say something, you know that’s the angle he’s coming from. Not from a place of malice or place of disbelief or a place of anger or whatever, frustration. It’s all towards winning. When Al speaks, you listen.”
Horford communicates in different ways to invigorate his teammates, whether it’s speaking in motivational terms from within a huddle or bellowing with passion following an energetic play on the court. Either way, it’s contagious.
We saw the latter out of Horford as well, Saturday afternoon, as he stomped around like Godzilla after grabbing a hard-fought defensive rebound in the second quarter, hyping up both his teammates and the fans inside TD Garden.
There’s a reason why the term “Playoff Al” exists: because Horford brings his game and his enthusiasm to another level once the postseason rolls around. And it didn’t take long for Playoff Al to make his mark in this series, especially in the fourth quarter when he talked the talk in the huddle and then walked the walk with a clutch 3-point and two big blocks down the stretch.
“I just think the games are so much more intense, it brings a lot more out of all of us and our crowd,” said Horford, who posted six points, nine rebounds, two assists, two blocks, one steal, and game-best plus-16 rating in Game 1. “Just from pregame you already knew it was going to be a good environment and we really just feed off of that and get it going. These are the type of moments—and it’s such a difference between the postseason and the regular season. You can feel it out there.”
All of that energy channels right through Horford’s veins and is transmitted straight into the game.
“When things are going good, he’s rounding everybody up,” said Derrick White. “And when things are going bad, he’s bringing everybody together. That’s just the way he’s been.”
It’s all part of what makes the 36-year-old so valuable to the team, says Mazzulla.
“He's a lot of things for us,” said the coach. “One of them is our emotional leader to where he has an innate maturity and an ability to bring a game back with a big shot or a blocked shot. And so he did that where he hit the three on the wing and then he had two blocked shots in transition with about two minutes to go. We're just really fortunate to have him. His ability is not only what he can do from a basketball standpoint, but what he brings from an emotional and leadership standpoint. Not only does it help us over the course of a season, but in moments of games, and it's big for us.”