SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Speaking in a darkened corner of the Chase Center, home of his new NBA club, Al Horford shared his perspective on what\u2019s transpired 3,000 miles away at TD Garden this season.<\/p>\n
No, he says, he isn\u2019t surprised that the Celtics have exceeded expectations despite losing Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Luke Kornet, the injured Jayson Tatum and himself this offseason. In Horford\u2019s view, the standards set by Joe Mazzulla and enforced by Jaylen Brown would not allow Boston to become noncompetitive.<\/p>\n
There is one aspect of the Celtics\u2019 unexpectedly impressive season, however, that the 39-year-old big man did not see coming: He did not envision Neemias Queta \u2014 a fourth-stringer on last year\u2019s veteran-laden team \u2014 emerging as a capable, everyday starting center.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that\u2019s been the biggest surprise,\u201d Horford, who left in free agency to sign with the Golden State Warriors, told the Herald on Monday. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t mean it in a bad way. It\u2019s in a very good way. But it\u2019s a lot of responsibility to be a starting center, to play those type of minutes, everything that it requires. Neemi really worked in the offseason, and they figured it out over there. And he\u2019s \u2014 he\u2019s just been really good. He\u2019s been consistent. He\u2019s been helping them win. I\u2019m not looking even at the numbers; I just look at results, and the fact that he\u2019s having an impact and he\u2019s doing those things, I\u2019m just very proud of him when I see that. Because he\u2019s a good he\u2019s a good person, he\u2019s a hard worker, and he\u2019s put himself in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Queta (and effective backup Luka Garza) plugging the team\u2019s biggest roster hole, Brown delivering the best season of his career in Tatum\u2019s absence, and Boston getting strong minutes from its squadron of young, high-energy wings, the 31-18 Celtics entered the week ranked third in the NBA in both net rating and point differential. Only Detroit sat above them in the Eastern Conference standings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of changes, but it doesn\u2019t surprise me, just because I know who Joe Mazzulla is,\u201d Horford said. \u201cI feel like when he first got the job, a lot of people were like, \u2018Well, he has so much (roster) talent. He has all these things. They\u2019re going to be fine.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t work like that, and I think that in moments now that they\u2019re being questioned and challenged, he really gets to show he\u2019s a really, really good coach. All the guys respect him. Everybody embraces him. And Jaylen has just taken that leap. He\u2019s seized that opportunity. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t surprise me because of Joe\u2019s character and Jaylen\u2019s determination. I think that everybody else kind of has fallen in line, and it\u2019s been pretty impressive to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether he saw this type of leap coming from Brown \u2014 who was voted an All-Star starter for the first time and has been discussed as a fringe NBA MVP candidate \u2014 Horford replied: \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned with Jaylen is that anytime that he\u2019s been knocked down, he finds a way to get back up and to continue to grow and get better,\u201d the 19th-year pro said. \u201c\u2026 Each year, I\u2019ve just seen an improvement with him, with his play, with his consistency, and when he talks about sacrificing, it is true. There was always so much more that he could have done, that he understood that for the team and to win, it was important for him to take a backseat, to defer at different times. And he was very graceful with it and very patient with it. And that\u2019s something that I really commend him (for), because it\u2019s not easy to do.<\/p>\n
As for himself, Horford called his first season on the West Coast \u201ca big learning experience.\u201d After playing seven of the last nine seasons in Boston, where he won an NBA title in 2024, he\u2019s battled injuries, unfamiliarity and nearly as many losses (23) as wins (27) on a team that entered the year with championship aspirations.<\/p>\n
\u201cUs being in Boston for so many years, we really felt a part of the community,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were very familiar with everything. And then I understood that coming here was going to be a lot of changes, and it was going to be very different. So for me, it\u2019s been a learning experience, just trying to learn a new system, learn being around a new team, and trying to figure things out, and at the same time just trying to do my best on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
That learning took time. Across his first 13 appearances for Golden State \u2014 which were scattered over six weeks \u2014 Horford averaged 5.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game, shot 32.1% from the field, and was deep in the negatives in net rating (minus-7.6) and plus\/minus (minus-50).<\/p>\n
But since shaking the sciatica issue that sidelined him for much of December, Horford has been far more efficient and available. He\u2019s suited up for 16 of the Warriors\u2019 last 20 games, averaging 8.5 points and 5.6 rebounds and upping his shooting percentage to 49.0% (39.7% from 3-point range) during that span.<\/p>\n
Horford\u2019s net rating over those 16 games is 10.8 \u2014 second-best among all Golden State regulars \u2014 and the team has outscored opponents by 76 points with him on the floor. Head coach Steve Kerr recently moved him into the starting lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s awesome,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cHe\u2019s such a great pro. He\u2019s seen it all. Such a good player. He\u2019s become, in the latter stages of his career, an excellent 3-point shooter. But the wisdom, the fundamental play, the awareness of what wins \u2014 all of that is so huge for us. And I\u2019m thrilled for Al, because the first part of the season, we had so many back-to-backs. He couldn\u2019t play in the back-to-backs, and then he suffered the injury. It feels like over the last two or three weeks, he\u2019s really found his groove, and it\u2019s helping us immensely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horford is set to face the Celtics for the first time on Thursday, Feb. 19 \u2014 both teams\u2019 first game back from the NBA All-Star break. His lone visit to TD Garden this season is on March 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t an easy decision, you know, to leave with my kids in school, with us, with our stability and everything,\u201d Horford said. \u201cBut for me, it\u2019s always been about my faith and my growth, and I felt like it was time for me to do something different. And right now, I\u2019m at peace with that. But going over there, it\u2019s going to be very, very nice, because it\u2019s like going back home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Speaking in a darkened corner of the Chase Center, home of his new NBA club,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[869,78164,50029,676,208,3874,7,75,46,164,677,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-578407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-al-horford","9":"tag-al-horford-celtics","10":"tag-al-horford-warriors","11":"tag-atlanta","12":"tag-atlanta-hawks","13":"tag-atlantahawks","14":"tag-basketball","15":"tag-boston-celtics","16":"tag-celtics","17":"tag-golden-state-warriors","18":"tag-hawks","19":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116003840205636461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}