A vintage Al Horford performance

With Jayson Tatum having an off game and the Celtics without Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, someone had to step up against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in town. That someone just happened to be the 38 year old ageless wonder Al Horford who turned back the clock and went toe to toe with the two time MVP and won.

Horford had 19 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 steals on 7-12 shooting in the Celtics 110-103 win over the Nuggets on Sunday. This makes him only the 9th player in NBA history with that stat line at age 38 or older.

Joe Mazzulla was impressed by Horford’s performance and talked about how what Al does for the Celtics can’t always be measured in the box score.

“He’s one of the best players in the league guarding the other best players in the league, no matter what position they are.” Mazzulla said. “He was just elite tonight — on the defensive end of the floor, with his positioning, his communication, his physicality, his rebounding. It was amazing to watch.”

Al was was at the right place at the right time to begin the game on offense as his first basket. Luke Kornet rolled to the rim after setting a screen for Tatum, got the ball at the free throw line, and found Horford in the dunkers spot for an easy layup.

One of my favorite plays of the night from Horford came midway through the first quarter. After Derrick White missed a three, Al chased down the rebound, running full speed towards the Celtics bench. Once he grabbed it, he flung a one handed pass high into the air where it was tipped by Jayson Tatum at the top of the three point line back to White.

White passed it to Jaylen Brown in the corner where he missed the three but this hustle play by Horford should not go unnoticed.

His next notable offensive possession came in the second quarter when he got a switch on to Jamal Murray. The Celtics attacked Murray on defense all night and Horford was no exception, backing him down and hitting a nice turnaround bank over his contest.

In the beginning of the third quarter, Al made a great defensive play on a bad pass by Russell Westbrook that resulted in a steal. Brown chased it down and passed it to a streaking Horford on the fast break for an easy dunk.

Horford’s biggest play of the night came in the fourth quarter with under a minute to go in the game and the Celtics only up by five points. The Nuggets were looking to stay in the game late when they gave the ball to Jamal Murray.

Horford played some great defense to not allow Murray by him. Murray tried to throw a pass to Jokic, but it was deflected by Horford and into the hands of Derrick White. White threw it ahead to Jaylen Brown who found a wide open Horford running towards the basket for a layup, essentially icing the game.

Jaylen Brown joked after the game, saying, “He’s supposed to dunk that, but he has 5 kids so we’ll let it slide.”

Guys like LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant get a lot of praise for what their able to do at their age and it feels like Al Horford deserves to be in those conversations as well. Horford isn’t the superstar player those other three are, but he is still a legitimate contributor on a championship team at age 38 and that’s not a common occurrence in the NBA. Horford isn’t expected to put up those type of number on a nightly bases but when he does, it’s normally against the leagues best competition and when the Celtics need him most.