BOSTON — If you looked at Al Horford’s stat line at halftime Wednesday, you probably would have guessed he was on his way to a fifth straight game of scoring under 10 points.
That ended up being true in the Boston Celtics’ 103-99 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers at TD Garden, but it doesn’t tell the whole story of what Horford did in arguably the C’s biggest win of the season. Not even close.
Horford finished the game with nine points, but seven of those came in the second half, and he was only one point shy of a triple-double with his 10 total rebounds and 10 assists. Oh, and don’t forget his stellar defense on Tristan Thompson and the Cavaliers throughout the night.
“Even at halftime, he was 1-for-4 from the floor, and we thought he was great,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “That’s a testament to how he was playing. He was really aggressive, his defense was really good and Thompson’s a hard guy to hang with all night. But I thought that Al did a good job.”
Horford’s contributions just weren’t as visible as those of, say, Isaiah Thomas, who had a game-high 31 points.
“That’s what we signed him to do,” Thomas said of Horford’s impact. “He makes plays, high basketball IQ, he can score, he can pass, he can rebound and the way he played tonight we need him to play like that for us to win. He does a lot for us that doesn’t even go on the stat sheet though.”
Let’s take a look at a few more notes from a thrilling night at TD Garden.
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— Boston ended up having a pretty good night from beyond the arc after starting 1-for-9 from 3-point range in the first quarter. The Celtics made just a tick under 42 percent of their 3-pointers, none of which were bigger than the three triples they sank in the final 2:06 of the game.
Jae Crowder, Avery Bradley and Isaiah Thomas all made 3-pointers in crunch time.
— So just how big was beating the defending NBA champions, even without the injured Kevin Love in the lineup?
“I think its big for us, especially going on to the West Coast,” said Bradley, whose lockdown defense on Kyrie Irving in the final minute helped seal the win. “This needs to carry over for us. I said earlier we get prepared for these games and get excited for TV games, but it’s the games that aren’t on TV and we’re playing the teams that might not have the LeBron (Jameses) that we need to go out there and make sure we’re playing the right way and playing with energy and trying to improve and be the best team we can be every single game.”
— There’s still a lot of time between now and the NBA playoffs, but if the standings hold, the Cavaliers and Celtics would be the East’s Nos. 1 and 2 seeds, setting up a potential showdown in the Eastern Conference finals. But you didn’t have to wait until May to feel a playoff-like atmosphere at TD Garden between the Cavs and C’s.
“It was fun,” Irving said. “Obviously, you want to come and win. It feels like a playoff atmosphere. Two great teams going at it, it’s what you want to be a part of.”
“It definitely felt like a playoff game,” Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue added. “The atmosphere is great. Whenever you play in Boston, the atmosphere is good. Both sides competed, and it was a really good game.”
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images