The Celtics almost let another 20-point lead slip away, but this time, they didn’t fold. After blowing a big lead to the Cavaliers on Friday, Boston made sure history didn’t repeat itself, grinding out a 110-103 win over the Nuggets on Sunday afternoon. Jaylen Brown set the tone, dropping 22 points while dishing out eight assists and pulling down five boards. Al Horford came through in the clutch, not just with his 19 points and eight rebounds, but with three huge steals that kept Denver from flipping the script.
Horford sealed the Celtics’ 110-103 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday with a transition bucket, capping off a strong all-around performance. While his contribution was crucial, teammate Brown couldn’t help but joke about how Horford finished the play.
After the game a reporter asked the 4x All-Star if he could tell before or during the game when Al Horford was locked in and poised for a strong performance.
“Um, you know, you can’t always tell,” Brown admitted. “But when, when he’s there, you know, when you, you know, when it’s there, you know.”. Horford played a key role in defending Nikola Jokic and battling on the boards, something Brown and the team took notice of.
“So tonight, you know, big-time matchup, uh, on Jokic, for a large part of the game, you know, fighting him, battling him on the boards, we want to reward him for his work,” Brown said.
The Finals MVP made it a point to find Horford offensively, leading to his late transition bucket.
“So, just, I was looking for Al early, was able to connect to him a few times and had that, that final one in transition where he gets to tip on a, uh, gets hand, gets a deflection, sprints in transition. I see him running, throw it back to the big fella.”
Then, Brown jokingly called out Horford for not throwing down a dunk.
“He’s supposed to dunk that, but you know, he got five kids, so we let him slide.” This comes in after Joe Mazzulla, the Celtics’ head coach praised Horford’s focus, his ability to lock in when needed and get them across the line.
This is a developing story…
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