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Al Horford heard all the noise — and he delivered with his greatest playoff masterclass.
Headed into Wednesday’s close-out game in Boston, Horford had struggled since sliding into the starting rotation for Kristaps Porzingis.
But with the TD Garden crowd roaring behind him, Horford delivered yet another iconic Celtics moment, putting up 22 points, 5 assists, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks in a 113-98 win over Cleveland to send Boston to the Eastern Conference Finals.
“We had a great opportunity here at home to handle this,” Horford said. “I knew it was going to take a lot more than just playing a normal game.”
The Donovan Mitchell-less Cavaliers came into Wednesday’s game on life support, but they didn’t go down easily, bringing the fight throughout the opening quarter.
Early triples from Jaylen Brown and Derrick White didn’t scare them away as a combo attack of Darius Garland, Marcus Morris Sr. and Max Strus kept the game close.
The opening quarter was the first sign of what would become a special night for Horford. Coming into the game, Horford was shooting 27% from three in the playoffs, but he quickly came out and knocked one down to ignite the Garden.
“We weren’t where we needed to be as a group,” Horford said. “I just wanted to bring that energy to our group, and the group was able to feed off of it.”
Despite Horford’s early impacts, Boston was still failing to reach the level necessary to end Cleveland’s season. Its performance seemed eerily familiar to past years where the team failed to perform at home in the postseason.
“In the past we’ve been in this position and haven’t been able to close things,” Horford said. “This is a sign of growth for our group.”
Horford came out in the second and knocked down two more triples, but his highlight of the night came with just over a minute to go before halftime. The 37-year-old center chased down his own three-point miss, and while falling into the Celtic bench, flung the ball at Dean Wade to regain possession.
“Everyone leads in different ways,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “When (Horford) plays the way he does, it's contagious and everybody has different ways in which they lead. He did it at a high level today, tonight was loud, but he does it all the time.”
Horford wasn’t just impacting the offensive end of the court, his game was translating defensively too. Garland was constantly attacking and switching onto Horford — it didn’t work out too well for him.
While Garland was able to beat Horford with his first step, the center was closing out at the basket at a high level. Horford finished with three blocks and a steal while locking up Cleveland’s main scoring threat.
“Once Mitchell went out, we made some adjustments defensively, and it was up to really all the guys to take on the individual challenge,” Mazzulla said. “We went to more switching and they had to guard their yard and defend at a high level. I thought Al did a great job at that.”
As Horford received his standing ovation in the fourth, he walked off the parquet with a historic statline. The only other players at this age to put up 20 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists in the postseason were Lebron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
“It feels great because we won,” Horford said. “You can have a game like that and if you don’t get it done, you know. I’m happy because I was able to help the team win this game.”
Another thing made clear during that standing ovation? The deep bond that Horford and the Boston faithful share.
“It’s special when you’re here at the Garden,” Horford said. “This is something I just don’t take for granted. The energy of the fans, they love the Celtics, they want us to play hard, they want us to play the right way. I just felt very connected with them tonight.”
Horford and the Celtics walked off the court Wednesday night with their third straight berth in the Eastern Conference Finals, six in the last eight years.
Through it all the main constant has been Horford, bringing that same passion and standard that the Garden crowd has craved since Red Auerbach was lighting his cigar courtside.
“It’s something that it’s hard to do,” Horford said. “I’m very proud of just the work that our guys continue to put in. I'm just very proud of where we're at right now, at this point, understanding that there's a lot of work to do ahead for our group.”
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