With the Celtics in a battle with the young Magic in Game 4, they decided to turn to old reliable, Al Horford (2025)

Celtics

“There should be a separate stat sheet for guys like him because of the type of stuff that he does.”

By Khari Thompson, The Boston Globe

April 28, 2025

3 minutes to read

ORLANDO — Al Horford put himself in elite company Sunday night, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players in NBA history to record five blocks in an NBA playoff game at age 38 or older, and he did it without committing a single foul.

Horford stood strong down low with his hands up, and he closed out 3-point shooters aggressively. He swatted a pair of corner threes in the first quarter. He bookended his performance by rejecting a pair of driving layup attempts from Paolo Banchero, in the beginning of the first quarter and the final two minutes of the fourth.

“There should be a separate stat sheet for guys like him because of the type of stuff that he does,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said after his team’s 107-98 win in Game 4. “Just an unbelievable competitor. Made all the plays necessary to help us win.”

Horford’s most forceful block came with 6:05 remaining in the fourth quarter. With Boston clinging to a 5-point lead, Orlando’s Cory Joseph bumped Payton Pritchard on a drive and seemed like he had cleared enough space for a 7-foot runner. But Horford, who was at the top of the key helping in pick-and-roll coverage, sprinted over and swatted the ball out of bounds.

“Tremendous effort from Al down the stretch in that second half,” Jaylen Brown said. ”Big-time rebounds. Some big-time plays. That block was huge. He just did what it took to win. We don’t expect nothing less. That’s just Al Horford in a nutshell.”

Horford’s shot wasn’t falling, as he went 2 for 7 from the field, missed all three of his 3-point attempts, and scored just 6 points. But he made up for it in other ways.

When Wendell Carter lowered his shoulder and leveled a slashing Derrick White on a layup attempt, Horford was the first one to sprint over and shake his finger in Carter’s face. Officials reviewed the play and determined that it did not rise to the level of a flagrant foul, but Horford used the moment to show that the Celtics would not be pushed around without resistance.

“That’s what the series calls for,” Mazzulla said. ”It’s both teams playing physical, and physicality is just a word that people use. It can happen a bunch of different ways. It can happen on offense, it can happen on defense, happen on block-outs, happen on screening, happen on getting open.

“There’s so many different things there, and both teams are just testing each other on the ability to execute. They do a great job of that, so we have to continue to fight to execute those things.”

Horford grabbed four of his six rebounds during the final seven minutes of the game. He jousted with Franz Wagner as a Jayson Tatum 3-point attempt bounced off the rim. Horford grabbed the ball and wheeled around to find White, who drove in to make a contested layup. Horford snatched his own rebound after his final block on Banchero.

Tatum, who scored a game-high 37-points and pulled down 14 rebounds, said he could not praise Horford enough.

“Al is unbelievable,” Tatum said. “Big moments. Game is tied, four minutes left, and just making plays the entire night on both ends of the floor. At 38 years old he’s picking up full court, doing whatever is asked of him. It just kind of sets the tone for everybody else. He has the heart of a champion.”

Seeing Horford’s hustle, whether it’s diving for loose balls or rotating on help defense, energized the Celtics.

“It riles us up. If Al can do it, fourth quarter, game on the line, there’s no excuses for nobody else,” Brown said. “It just rallies the troops. It anchors us down. Our physicality was great tonight. I thought we were a lot more physical with Banchero, just making it tough for him.”

“Orlando is a really good team, they’re coached well, they’re physical, defensively they’ve been great this series. So, it’s not over. We’ve got to close them out because we don’t want to come back here.”

Horford helped the Celtics win the rebounding battle, and he had more blocks than the Magic had as a team. The Celtics closed the game strong and gave themselves a chance to end the series Tuesday night at TD Garden.

“Not a lot of second-chance opportunities for them tonight, and I think that made a big difference, especially in the fourth quarter,” Brown said. “Taking care of the boards, taking care of the trenches, taking care of the little plays like that, the physicality, not fouling for unnecessary reasons, and just playing basketball. I still think we can be better, but way to close the game out. That was a fun one.”