Al Horford continues to shine bright on the biggest stage, leads Boston Celtics to Game 1 win

Things were looking bleak for the Boston Celtics through the first three quarters of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Stephen Curry was cheffing it up, and it seemed like Boston just didn’t have an answer. That is, until Al Horford decided to take over.

Boston was down 12 points heading into the fourth quarter, but luckily for them, that’s when Horford decided to kick things into high gear. He went 4-for-4 from the field and 2-for-2 from deep in the fourth, notching 11 of Boston’s 40 points in the final period.

He earned some high praise from his teammates after the game, too. Jaylen Brown said they need that type of play from Horford as the go-to veteran on the squad.

Phenomenal. That’s what we need. That’s what we want. We want that veteran leadership to carry us over. Al had a bunch of great looks. We encouraged him to keep taking them. He came out his first Finals game and played amazing. He carried us and led to a victory.

Horford was calm, cool, and collected in the fourth as the Celtics chipped away at the Golden State Warriors’ lead. His scoring came at a crucial time, too, as he hit two threes in a row to put the Celtics up by six with 4:49 remaining. Boston wouldn’t trail again for the remainder of the contest.

After leading the Celtics through the Milwaukee Bucks series and playing a big role in the Eastern Conference Finals, Horford is showing no signs of slowing down.

Brown wasn’t the only Celtic to speak about Horford during his post-game press conference, though. Marcus Smart also touched on the veteran’s play. saying that “nobody deserves to be here more than him.”

We were ecstatic for him. Al’s the O.G., man, he puts in the work. Don’t…