A Jayson Tatum long-range bomb gave the Boston Celtics the 126-123 win over the Toronto Raptors on Saturday night in overtime.
How did they get to this point?
Well, it was a team effort. Boston had six players score in double figures, including Al Horford, who tallied a season-high 18 points.
Half of them came in the fourth quarter, where Big Al was Boston’s leading scorer.
“You can always count that he’s going to make a play when it’s time to make a play,” head coach Joe Mazzulla said of the 17-year vet’s timely buckets.
Horford got himself going by doing just that — making a play. With the game tied at 102 with just over five minutes to play, No. 42 drove past Chris Boucher’s closeout for a vintage and-one floater over Ochai Agbaji.
Despite missing a corner three on the following possession, Horford remained ready for the moments when his number 42 would be called.
He sank a pair of late triples off of dishes from Tatum, who saw a ton of attention from Toronto’s defense for the entire quarter. The second required him to make a play with less than two minutes remaining. JT kicked him a pass off of a double team, at which point Horford decided to fake a pass to the corner and take the look himself.
“It keeps us on our toes,” the 38-year-old said of the tough battle against the Raptors. “I feel like every team we’re playing against us is giving us their best shot… All of this stuff will make us better.”
The vet makes an excellent point. Even though the Celtics probably should’ve won this game more comfortably, they still managed to execute and make plays when things got tight. It’s even more fun when you consider that closing games is something that they’ve struggled with in years past.
How many games do you, as someone who supports the Cs, remember watching where you felt let down by the team’s late-game execution?
Probably a lot.
Now, how many times do you remember that same feeling during last season’s playoff run?
Not many.
The Cs did a much better job at buckling down and finishing games, during their climb to Banner 18. In both Games 3 and 4 against the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Cs pulled out wins in situations where there wasn’t room for error. Game 3 showcased Horford’s readiness in a similar way to Saturday’s win.
It was a night where he sank seven threes, including two in spots where he brought the Cs within one possession of the hosts, late in the game.
Don’t get me wrong. The two games had far different stakes. However, the in-game situation was pretty much the same. Boston needed all the buckets they got from the big man in order to finish the job.
Without his readiness, creativity, and execution, we probably wouldn’t have seen the first made Tatum game-winner in who knows how long.
