The Boston Celtics’ Tuesday night meeting against the Philadelphia 76ers went the same way that it always seems to go. Boston came out on top and sent the Sixers home winless at TD Garden this season.
Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Kristaps Porzingis combined to score 83 of the team’s 117 points against Philly. While the stars got theirs, Al Horford quietly had his fingerprints all over this win over his former team, as he always seems to.
He scored just eight points, but his impact was certainly felt.
The 37-year-old was first to the floor for a loose ball late in the game. The Cs weren’t able to recover it, but the effort was certainly appreciated by head coach Joe Mazzulla.
“How great was it when he dove for that loose ball?” Mazzulla questioned when I asked him about Horford’s character after the win.
The big man was the first to a few loose balls, had some deflections, and sank a few timely baskets when Philly crept back into the game early in the fourth quarter.
Though his presence is felt quite often against the Cs’ division rivals, Mazzulla doesn’t want the recognition to stop there.
“I would say he’s there for us every game. So, I don’t really want to make it about one opponent.”
Despite Mazzulla’s take on Horford’s play against the 76ers not necessarily being special, he’s been excellent over the last three meetings, including Tuesday’s.
In fact, two of his four highest-scoring games this season have come against Philadelphia.
Back on December 1, he poured in a season-high 20 points against a shorthanded Sixers squad to help the Cs hold onto their undefeated home record. He got his buckets in an efficient fashion, sinking seven of his nine attempts from the field.
A few weeks earlier, he dropped 14 on the division rivals at Wells Fargo Center to send the hosts home unhappy. His impact in that win was felt on the defensive end as well. He did a solid job of slowing down reigning MVP Joel Embiid, who scored just 20 points in the loss. That was his second-lowest scoring total of the season (his lowest, 14 points, came in the game where he suffered a knee injury).
Horford’s five-block performance in this one tied his season high in rejections.
The rivalry between Big Al and the city of Philadelphia stems far further back than just this season. During his first stint with the Cs, he gave Embiid nightmares in the 2018 NBA Playoffs as well as various other matchups between the two sides.
Horford then left the Celtics in 2019 to join the rival 76ers, only to struggle to find a role within the team, and then be traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder after just one year in The City of Brotherly Love.
He found his way back to Boston in the summer of 2021. Since then, he’s picked up right where he left off before skipping town.
I’m sure Horford wouldn’t outright say that he loves to play against his former team, but the numbers certainly would indicate that that is the case.
Plus, he sent out this little victory tweet, also nodding to Dominican Independence Day.
Tuesday was just another chapter in the Al Horford/Philadelphia 76ers rivalry.
Hit the music!
