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Al Horford is good. It is a phrase that is never punctuated by an exclamation point between October and March. Then, again, you see him stopping the least stuck players in the Eastern Conference, making all the right decisions on the other side of the floor, and it's tempting to add extra mustard: Al Horford is ridiculously good!
It's not so much that anyone who forgets Al Horford is very good; this fact is still in my head somewhere, just stored in a binder in a corner of the attic with cobwebs. Then, in the spring, exasperated Joel Embiid or Giannis Antetokounmpo crushes everything a young MVP candidate can give to a team that needs 20 feet of foot to clearly explain what a team needs. a modern man to succeed in the playoffs. Horford had 20 points, 11 rebounds and three assists in the rout of Boston's first game.
More importantly, he imposed Antetokoumnpo 7 shots on 21. While the Celtics had a lot of strong bodies to throw him, including a strong contribution from Marcus Morris, no one can take more credit for that miserable night of shooting than Horford. Every time he went down, he would dare to have Giannis stop, lurking in the corridor, arms outstretched, watching him every step of the way the Buck attacked.
Al was only officially credited with three blocks and one flight at night, but his hands were ubiquitous: entering Giannis airspace, disrupting his grip, recovering to fill temporary holes in the defense before Giannis can not pierce them. His fast feet and remarkable sense of timing proved to be a match capable of Giannis' seemingly incomparable speed, strength and length.
Few people in the league can devour Antetokounmpo like that consistently. Teams will probably need a player of this type if they want to progress in the East at any time in the foreseeable future.
And if this player can add as much as Horford to the other end, he really cooks. When he did not lock Giannis, his gravity forced the defense to make tough decisions at the other end. Kyrie Irving, who perfectly organized the Celtics attack in this match, could not have asked for a better dance partner than a big one who shot 41 percent of the three goals of his career in the playoffs. When the other solution is to let Kyrie rush downhill to choose the shot of her choice, many defenses simply go back and let Horford take care of it. Milwaukee did and paid for it.
Boston spammed the pick-and-pop Irving-Horford in this game with very good results. There were many such pieces, and I will not bore you with all of them. Just imagine Irving passing on a screen and making a nice pass to Horford, who drains it placidly after raising a height of four to five inches off the ground.
It's only a match. Giannis has been an insurmountable force year – round, turned the Pistons to ashes and could well be the MVP of the regular season. But now, it's up to him to prove he's the best player in this game in this series. This is Al Horford's post-season surreal experience for you.
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