Still Too Much Al
The second-worst coaching decision of tonight's loss to the Philadelphia 76ers was when Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla removed Kristaps Porzingis with 9:46 left in the third quarter, in favor of Al Horford. Porzingis had picked up his second and third fouls in quick succession, and Mazzulla panicked, worrying that he would get in foul trouble, even though three fouls in the third quarter is not generally that big of a deal.
Porzingis had scored on the prior trip down the floor, and had scored Boston's final 12 points of the second quarter. He was pretty much the only one who had it going. He had 18 points at that time, and no one else was in double figures. Taking him out of the game was bad enough. But Mazzulla brought in Horford, and the offense ground to a halt. The C's would only score 12 points the rest of the third, and finished the quarter with 71 points. On three occasions already this season, the C's topped 70 points by halftime, so this was a distressing total.
Horford did nothing to move the offense along. He took three shots, all threes, and none were close. The first two were from the top of the break, and he front rimmed them. The third one came from the right corner, and he shot it over the hoop – it scraped the other side of the rim on its graceless fall back to the ground. This final attempt was especially hurtful. The C's had fallen behind by eight points, and after the miss that could have cut it to five right at the end of the period, Patrick Beverley hit his one and only shot of the game – a floater in the lane – to give Philly a 10-point lead after three.
Horford hit the bench to start the fourth, and the C's started to try to claw back into the game. With 6:25 left, they were behind seven, when Horford came in. The game log lists as coming in for Payton Pritchard, but the swap was Horford and Jaylen Brown for Pritchard and Porzingis. Horford came in for Porzingis. This was the worst decision of the game.
The C's might have been closer, but every time they edged the lead down, Tyrese Maxey was there, hitting a difficult floater. He had eight points in the quarter, and was looking to shoot every time down the floor. So what did Horford immediately do? He doubled Joel Embiid at the perimeter, even though Jrue Holiday had good position on Embiid. In doing so, Horford left Maxey wide open for a three, which he drained like it was practice. You could lay some blame with Jaylen Brown, who also played terribly, and rotated a little late, but it'd have been a miracle if he got there, because Maxey is just too quick.
With 3:44 left, Mazzulla called a time out, and the Celtics were still stuck on the same 87 points they were when Horford had entered with 6:25 left. To its credit, the team fought hard to come back as soon as Porzingis got back into the game, and nearly pulled it off, but this nearly three-minute scoreless stretch was just too much to overcome.
Joe Mazzulla has been a much more prepared, direct, and authoritative coach in his second year on the job. But he is still leaning too much on Horford. He did the same thing on Monday night. It was more excusable then because Derrick White missed the game, but Horford played 36 minutes in that one, and was clearly gassed in overtime, and the Minnesota Timberwolves knew it. They worked screens around until Horford was matched up on Anthony Edwards on the perimeter. It was a huge mismatch, because Horford is too slow to defend in space, and Edwards unhinged his jaw and swallowed the old man whole.
The C's were seemingly dazed by this display, as if they hadn't watched the tape of Trae Young, Caleb Martin, and Jimmy Butler having done the exact same things to Horford last postseason. The C's quickly lost the plot, and by the time they recovered to force the ball out of Edwards' hands and away from Horford, it was more or less too late, and the T'Wolves made it a moot point by running the same scheme, except with Jaden McDaniels and Porzingis (Porzingis actually fell down trying to defend what turned into an easy game-clinching shot for McDaniels).
What's most distressing about Mazzulla leaning on Horford is that he doesn't have to. Guys like Oshae Brissett and Lamar Stevens were brought onto this team specifically because they are agile wings who can defend well in space. Mazzulla has to give them a chance to do what they were brought here to do. Last season, when Horford shooting .446 from three, you lived with teams isolating on him on the other end. This season, he's tentative to shoot (he passed up multiple good chances tonight), and he's not hitting them when he takes them. He entered tonight's game shooting 4-for-16 from three, and then shot 1-for-6 tonight. That's 5-for-22 if you're scoring at home, or 22.7%. Yes, it's just 22 shots, but it comes on the heels of Horford shooting .298 in the playoffs. He's hit just 33 of his last 116 threes, for a .284 percentage. The C's need better. If it were Marcus Smart shooting like that, the media wolves would be braying, but everyone loves Al, and so you won't hear much about it. I love him too, but come on.
Al Horford is not the only reason the Celtics lost the last two games. There is plenty of blame to go around. (The team is still failing to adjust when threes aren't going down – 15-for-47 from three is an abomination.) But after averaging less than 20 minutes in the team's first four games, Horford has averaged more than 30 in the past three. All three were games that got tight, and so Mazzulla leaned on him. That's simply not sustainable, because Horford is 37 years old, and is unlikely to play one side of every back-to-back game. The worst season the C's had in the past few years was the 2020-2021 season, when Kemba Walker hamstrung the C's in the same way. In one game, he was a starter, and then the next night he was out altogether, making the C's have to play two completely different ways. It was paralyzing. The C's finally got Horford out of the starting lineup, seemingly in an effort to not have to play that way this season. But the effect is muted if he's playing 30 minutes a night. At 20 minutes per game, he can still be effective, but 30 minutes is just too much Al Horford.
The first instance of this season's back-to-back games is this weekend. I'll be very interested to see who gets Horford's minutes in the game he sits out.