CelticsBlog Player of the Week #18: Al Horford

Needless to say, we have a tough task ahead of us to name our Player of the Week, after a 1-3 clunker of a week from the Boston Celtics that saw relatively few positives. The Celtics have slipped out of the top seed in the Eastern Conference, surrounding a nice win over the Cleveland Cavaliers with a pair of losses against the surging New York Knicks and a blown 28-point lead against the Brooklyn Nets (the biggest comeback in the NBA this season). Suboptimal performance, to say the least, which makes our field of candidates a bit thinner than usual. Let’s jump right in.

Honorable Mentions

Consistent contributions were hard to find from the Celtics this week. Most players on the roster paired one or two big games with an equal number of stinkers. Jayson Tatum was brilliant in the win over the Cavaliers, going toe-to-toe with Donovan Mitchell and scoring 41 points on 13-of-21 shooting from the field. His other 40-point performance of the week, though, felt about as poor as any 40-point outing could be — he shot just 12-of-30 against the Knicks, including 6-of-17 from behind the three-point arc.

Jaylen Brown had a 35-point night against the Nets, and was solid in the second Knicks game, but missed the first matchup against New York and was fairly anonymous against Cleveland. Malcolm Brogdon scored 22 in the first Knicks matchup, but sat out the remainder of the week due to injury. Our other recurring winner, Derrick White, was effective but unremarkable for much of the week, and snapped his personal streak of double-digit performances with mostly invisible four-point outing against the Cavaliers.

In all, it was the elder statesman of the Celtics who rose above the rest this week.

CelticsBlog Player of the Week #18: Al Horford

4 GP, 35 MPG, 15.5 PTS (58% FG, 63% 3PT), 8 REB, 3.3 AST, 1 BLK

It’s only slightly an exaggeration to say that Al Horford was one missed three away from an essentially perfect week. His shot from the corner didn’t find the mark at the end of the second overtime period against the Knicks, but as a whole, that felt like the only three he missed the entire week. The 37-year-old has been cooking lately, offering a reminder of what he brings to the table for the Celtics this postseason.

Indeed, it feels like the Horford we saw this week had shifted into that extra gear he always…