Al Horford Got His Revenge, Rob Williams Saved The Day And The Celtics Once Again Took Care Of The Process

Adam Glanzman. Getty Images.

It's always nice when you are able to win the last game you have at home before a tough 5 game West Coast trip. Weird shit always tends to happen on those things so making sure you secure a win before you head out is great. When that win comes against the Sixers, even better. I wouldn't exactly say this is a rivalry though. Things started with the Celts winning every time they played, then came the early playoff series defeat when the Jays were young pups. Give the Sixers credit, they responded by winning like 7 of 8….regular season games….while still managing to get swept by the Celts in the playoffs. Well, now we're right back to the Celts beating them every time they play. In fact, that's exactly what they've doneso far this season. Sure it's only been one game, but facts are facts I'm sorry if this upsets you. After a horrific start at home to begin the year, the Celts have now won 5 of 6 in their own building and sit just 2 games back of the 2 seed with 60 games to play. Maybe the sky isn't falling! While securing the win before a long road trip is nice, the value is in more than just the W added to the record. You want as much positive momentum as you can get, and that's exactly what we have. What they now do with that is anyone's guess, but with this being a very important month I'd say starting it by winning your first game is a good first step. We remember what happened in their first game of November right? The Bulls collapse. Thankfully we didn't have another one of those to deal with.

This win was also big because it got the Celts back to 3-3 within their division, giving them the 2nd spot. The Nets still have a commanding 4-0 lead and that probably won't change, but teams like BOS/NYK/PHI are most likely going to be jumbled all year. Both H2H record and division record are going to be important for all those teams. You may try and be a hardo and say you don't care about early December games and that's fine. I do. Plenty of Celts fans do, especially against division opponents. You'd much rather win those than not right? So they matter.

So before we can start to worry and talk about what might happen on the other coast, let's first relive one of our favorite traditions. Exposing The Process. It truly never gets old.

The Good

- Go back in time with me if you wouldn't mind. The years are 2016-2019 and Al Horford is making life for Joel Embiid a living hell. Doesn't matter what Embiid does, Horford owns that man. So much so that the Sixers decided you know what? If they can't beat him, just give him 100M to bring him over. Sort of weird to do that and then have no idea how to use Horford, so naturally the fit didn't work and they got rid of him. Their fans called him washed partly because they are morons but also because they didn't want to admit that maybe it was their team that was the one screwing things up. Fast forward to 2021, Al Horford is back on the Celtics and back to making Joel Embiid's life a living hell in a Celtics win

Horford was matched up with Embiid for a total of 26 possessions, gave up just 5 total points on 1-7 shooting. Does that man looked washed to anyone with a brain and eyeballs? You don't even need two working eyes. You could be a pirate and have just one eye and an eye patch and you could see that Al Horford is very much not washed up. There's a whole bunch of gas left in that tank. How the Sixers couldn't figure out how to use a player that literally does everything on a basketball court is beyond me. Remember when they said you can't play Al in a double big lineup? The Celts have found success doing that in TWO different Al stints.

While his individual defense on Embiid is what got the blood pumping, it's his overall rim protection that is still the biggest surprise for me. We've never seen Al block shots like this at any point in his career. You can look that up. His 1.8 BLKS are a career high, as is his 6.1 BLK%. It's nearly twice as high as his previous career high. Oh, not to mention he also has the most rebounds per game since he was 27 years old and the 2nd highest REB% since the 2008-09 season. Is that something that washed up players do? I'm thinking no. 

He said postgame this was just another win because he is a professional and extremely polite, but no way that's true. Show me the family text chain. You could tell right from the opening tip that Al was extra motivated last night and it was one of his best all around performances of the year.

- One thing that we're all holding out hope for is that now that the calendar has flipped to December, Jayson Tatum can do what he always does in December and that's get out of his slump and play like a top 10-15 caliber player. I dunno, you tell me how that's going

26/16/2 on 9-20 (3-8) in his 36 minutes. When it came time to step up and put this game away, Tatum responded in the fourth quarter with 11 points on 3-5 shooting including that huge dagger late. It was the Jayson Tatum this team needs to have. In fact, after the game I saw this tweet and I almost couldn't believe it

I think part of that is obviously a volume thing, but it was surprising to see he's actually scored that many points because it feels like it should be the exact opposite. Tatum is still shooting just 38/39% in the fourth, but his FGA is basically the same as DeRozan and LaVine. This does sort of put thorn in this idea that Tatum doesn't have the "it" factor or he "doesn't come through" when it matters. I'd say fourth quarter scoring matters, but that's just me.

I also love what he had to say about everyone's favorite anonymous report that came out last week

Anything for clicks though.

- Alright, let's talk about Rob. The hero of the night, what a performance. He finished with 10 points on 5-7 shooting with 3 blocks, and none was more important than his final one

Can we take a moment to truly appreciate what Rob did on this possession? It was a beautiful display of both his basketball IQ and his insane athletic ability.

It starts with him following Niang across the court after the inbounds, as Horford does a great job keeping Harris in front of him and not fouling, we see Rob hedge down to help on Embiid ever so slightly. Since this is happening in real time, it's that movement that tells Harris he should pass the ball to Niang in the corner. Rob is able to "help" on Embiid like that because he knows he can recover quick enough and get out to the shooter. We know this because Rob eats jumpshots for breakfast. Guy blocks an insane amount of threes for a center, and then he launches from the Xfinity logo for the game saving block. A perfect contest. The beauty of that play is everything that went on before it though. That's the stuff that doesn't get the hype because of how that play ended, but it shows what type of development we're seeing from Rob. How he sees the game, how he's learning to use his athleticism to impact winning. It's all great stuff. 

- Another game, another example of Marcus Smart playing his role to perfection. Only 7 FGA (3 3PA), 8 assists, and a team best +7 in his 32 minutes. Defensively, he held his main matchup of Seth Curry scoreless over 25 possessions. He definitely got a little sloppy with the ball early in the fourth, but overall this is the exact version of Smart that his haters have been begging for. Someone who doesn't shoot a lot but when he does a majority of them are coming in the paint, creates for others, and defends first. Strange how the respect and props aren't as loud as the slander we heard in October isn't it? Smart has been nails for a legit month now, yet it doesn't get the same publicity. Interesting. 

There's no denying at this point that the offense runs WAY smoother with Smart being the primary ball handler. I think we have enough of a sample to make that claim. What he can do as a creator for Rob is a weapon. The fact that he continues to pass up threes in order to give the ball to the Jays is exactly what we all want. No surprise the Celts are now 10-5 since he started to play like this. 

- While you should definitely be concerned about this offense scoring 88 points, there's something to be said about winning a game like this. Call me crazy, but I think it's valuable that this team shows they can win a low scoring rock fight by getting stops and executing late in a game. Those reps are important. Would I have loved to kill this team by 30? Obviously, but this is still a Celts team that needs to prove themselves to us as fans so a game like this is part of that journey. The Sixers have a top 10 offense and they didn't break 90. When it came to tightening up in the fourth quarter, they held the Sixers to just 42/25%. They never gave up a quarter of more than 24 points. 

The double big lineup is legit. It's time to just accept that. The switching they can do 1-5, the rim protection, it might end up being one of the best defensive units we've seen in years. Brad knew that last year the defense was a disaster and he built one of the strongest groups in the entire league. You can't score on this team right now, and everyone knows when you have an inconsistent offense, being elite defensively is crucial. After their slow start, that's exactly what the Celts defense has been.

- Shoutout Enes Freedom for also shutting down Joel Embiid to the tune of 6 points on 2-9 shooting. What a complete and utter domination from the Celts frontcourt defensively. All three big guys were great.

- Crazy what can happen when Embiid isn't gifted 25 FTA. He still took 10, but we actually got to see what it looks like when you're allowed to defend him. Chances are that's flipped when they play in Philly and it'll be a Scott Foster/Tony Brothers game, but it was nice to see them actually let the guys play last night. Naturally, neither of those refs worked the game.

- This defensive play from Jaylen Brown was one of the best things I've ever seen him do on that end. What a monster

The Bad

- I know the team has a big trip coming up, but I really think it's in their best long term interest to sit Jaylen. He just doesn't look right. I dunno if he re-aggravated something or he simply doesn't trust his hamstring yet, but the player we saw last night was not someone who looks like they are getting better coming off this injury. You cannot afford to have this linger, so bite the bullet now while you can. I bring him on the trip, but I would be overly cautious. Don't play him on the two B2Bs, even rest him the next two if you have to. It hurts both the player and the team to keep throwing him out there when he's clearly laboring. I wish that wasn't the case but it is. We know what a fully healthy Jaylen looks like. We know what that explosiveness and assertiveness looks like. I did not see that in any way last night. Add in that he sort of grabbed his hammy after an early foul and there's just no point in risking it.

- Nothing more frustrating than watching this team be careless with the basketball. Whether it was Schroder early, Smart late, or everyone in between in that 3rd quarter where they turned the ball over 6 times, I would argue the Celts were lucky to walk away with this win given how careless they were. There are certain turnovers you live with and others that fill you with an ungodly rage. Maybe getting a 24 second violation because you're over passing? Fine. Watching Schroder dribble for 20 seconds only to turn it over? Bad. Watching Marcus Smart blow a wide open fast break opportunity with a behind the back pass? Bad. They do this shit out West, they are going to get demolished.

- I don't want to be mean, but what the hell was going on with that net? I can understand something getting messed up and you have to fix it once. But twice? Gotta clean that up. We were all waiting coming out of halftime for what seemed like an eternity. Would the Celts come out strong? Would they collapse? It was torture. To then have to do the same thing in a stressful the fourth quarter was torture. I cannot even imagine the pressure that guy was experiencing as 18,000 people became more and more restless, but let's not do that again.

- The Celts didn't have a single fastbreak point last night. Kinda weird given how good their defense was. You would think that would lead to some easy buckets, but nope. 

The Ugly

- I suppose this is where that last offensive possession should live. Woah buddy was that shit gross. Just see for yourself

I get that Schroder had just scored, but that play ain't it. He was just 4-12 on the night and that moment did nothing to make me feel better about this team in closing moments. The worst part is Ime had 2 timeouts! The second he saw that Schroder wasn't going to be able to turn the corner, he has to take that timeout. Save him from himself to so speak. There's really no excuse not to, so he fucked up there. 

- Then there was the play with the Celts up 4 with 37 seconds left, only to give up a 35ft prayer to Danny Green. I think we all were of the same mind when that shot went in. Another collapse was on the horizon. It looked like every other end of game collapse we've seen this year, so thankfully Rob saved the day. I'm not sure I recover if Niang hits that shot.

At 12-10, the Celts are right in the thick of things in the East. They still have a long way to go, but we're seeing progress. That 2-5 start seems like a distant memory. Now they have an opportunity to really make a statement with this West Coast trip. Come back 3-2 or somehow 4-1 and we're really cooking with gas.