Al Horford’s consistently elite play helps propel Celtics to 8th consecutive win

Al Horford’s stat-line in last night’s win against the Knicks won’t jump out – the 37-year-old backup center finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds in 26 minutes of action.

But, in his own quiet way, it was yet another dominant performance. Horford grabbed four offensive rebounds in the final period, turned back the clock and muscled his way into multiple successful post-ups, and came up with some quintessential key defensive plays to help ensure the Celtics would walk away on top.

In turn, the Celtics strung together their 8th consecutive win, as well as their 8th straight win on the road, dating back to their January 11th defeat in Milwaukee.

They hold the best record in the East by a striking eight games with the #2 Cavaliers closer to the 8th seed than they are to Boston. They also have a league-best point differential of 10.3 per game, a mark that exceeds that of the ‘08 championship team.

Yet, they’re not satisfied, and Horford wants to make sure it stays that way.

“We’re continuing to play good basketball,” Horford said after helping the Celtics overtake the Knicks 116-102. “We’re really trying to play the right way. Joe is really challenging us to continue to get better. This is a stretch of the season where we can really take it to another level, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Before the season started, much was made of which of the Celtics’ top six players would be relegated to the bench. Horford, an NBA starter of 16 years, graciously made the move to sixth man.

With Kristaps Porzingis and others in the starting unit missing time, Horford has gotten his fair share of starts this season — 22 out of 47 games played so far — but he’s also excelled in a new role that centers on him coming in to provide bursts of energy, ball movement, and rebounding.

The Celtics, and Kristaps Porzingis, in particular, struggled on the glass in the first half. The Knicks grabbed 7 offensive rebounds for 9 second-chance points, but Joe Mazzulla said that Horford minimized the damage by preventing the Knicks from grabbing several rebounds so that his teammates were able to, a play that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet but nonetheless saved the team several baskets.

“Al, I thought, his physicality in the first half – there were a couple 50/50 rebounds that kept the Knicks out of those transition opportunities,” Mazzulla said.

Offensively, Horford was intent on attacking mismatches. Normally, he spends much of his time on offense in the corners, where he’s hit 42.8% of three-pointer attempts this season. But, with Precious Achiuwa guarding him for stretches of the fourth, he recognized an advantage and began to work his way down low.

“We kind of saw that that was another way to create a two-on-one, they were doubling those,” Joe Mazzulla said. “He did a great job, he had one finish, another offensive rebound, and he passed up for another open shot. When he can really affect the game defensively, and is kind of a facilitator, it’s big for us.”

Horford scored six points in the fourth, which was tied for the most of any Celtic on the roster in the closing period. Every time it felt like the Knicks might build a little momentum, he was there with a big play.

With 11 minutes to go, for example, Al took Achiuwa baseline to push an 11-point lead to 13.

Horford’s teammates and coaches have routinely empathized his impact on the ball club, emphasizing how much it uplifts the rest of the group to see the veteran making impact play after impact play.

Last night in Madison Square Garden, nearly 17 years after he was drafted, that impact was on full display.

“It gives us so much energy and we get so excited when he does those things,” Jayson Tatum said after a November 28th win over Atlanta. “That’s contagious. The crowd feeds off of that. He’s the guy on our team. Everybody loves him and respects him. Night in and night out, he does things like that we can’t say thank you enough.”