Absence of Al Horford Shows His Defensive Value To Boston

Forced to miss Sunday’s loss to Phoenix due to an elbow sprain, Al Horford left a gaping hole in the middle of the Celtics lineup.

Bash Al Horford all you want for accumulating five consecutive games with fewer than 10 points, or for barely eclipsing the 10 points per game milestone in a tumultuous month of February. The fact of the matter is that the Boston Celtics need the $113 million-man’s presence in their starting lineup if they wish to make a run to the Eastern Conference Finals, with Sunday evening’s 109-106 gut-wrenching defeat to the lowly Phoenix Suns serving as primary evidence.

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If being dealt a defeat by a 21-42 squad competing for a spot in the top three of the NBA draft board, it was the fashion by which the Celtics were handed the loss that stings the most. With a pair of missed free throws by Isaiah Thomas and Jaylen Brown down the stretch, the Celtics coughed up a 105-102 advantage with 13 seconds left, allowing Suns guard Eric Bledsoe to drive for a pair of layups to knot the game at 106 apiece with four seconds left. Then, Thomas had the ensuing inbounds pass knocked away from his possession by an aggressive Marquese Chriss. The ball was then recovered by Phoenix point guard Tyler Ulis, who stepped back along the perimeter and drilled a buzzer-beating three-pointer to hand his team their third win in a row.

Why a team with the third-worst record in the NBA would be searching for three-game win streaks is baffling in its own right. However, the Suns would not have secured the victory if not for Horford’s absence. With the Celtics lack of reliable two-way centers excluding Horford once the final minutes of a tightly-contested game rolls around, Boston was forced to deploy a minuscule lineup of Thomas, Brown, Terry Rozier, Jae Crowder, and Jonas Jerebko over the final 41 seconds of the ballgame.

The lack of a defensive anchor in the post as the final stages of the game unraveled proved deadly for Boston. This allowed Bledsoe to carve apart the Celtics defense over the final few possessions of the contest. With 20 ticks remaining and his team trailing by three points, Bledsoe rushed the ball up the court against Boston guard Marcus Smart, receiving ball screens on either side. While Smart was able to fight directly through the screen, Jerebko made the ill-advised move of hopping over a screen to assist in stopping Bledsoe if he opted to drive to the right.

(Hop to 3:03 in the video below).

Since Bledsoe decided to attack the left side, Jerebko found himself in no-man’s land. With Chriss rolling into the lane for a wide-open bucket, Jerebko had no option but to follow him into the paint. With the Celtics attempting to prevent the Suns from shooting a three-pointer, Smart forced Bledsoe to the inside, expecting some help in the paint. However, with Jerebko caught behind the trailing Chriss, there was nobody there to assist Smart, allowing Bledsoe to scoot in for an uncontested layup to cut the lead to one point.

With Horford situated into the game, this lapse does not occur. Having formed considerable defensive chemistry with Smart, Horford would be able to recognize that Smart is unparalleled in his ability to fight through screens while recognizing his duty to serve as a rim protector based on the notion that the defensive scheme is designed to forced Bledsoe into the paint for a contested two-pointer. The Celtics scarcely have Horford hedge to defend the ball-handler in a situation in which Smart is the defender being screened, thus Horford would realize the necessity for him to remain with the roll man in this scenario and prevent Bledsoe from having the option of either driving for an easy finish or dishing to a wide-open Chriss for a bucket.

Horford provides the Celtics with the luxury of being able to take advantage of utilizing a small-ball lineup without forcing their players into defensive mismatches. On Phoenix’s penultimate possession, trailing 106-104, the void left by Horford’s absence was exploited for the second time in 10 seconds. Bledsoe sprinted up the court with the ball, heading to his left after receiving a screen from Chriss yet again. This forced Rozier to switch and match up with Chriss, leaving Crowder on an island to defend Bledsoe. Without having Horford man the paint as a rim protector, Rozier was forced to remain with the roll man so as not to provide Bledsoe with an open target to feed it to inside.

This isolated Crowder with Bledsoe, a matchup that the 28-point man easily abused. Once Bledsoe escaped Crowder’s grasp, the defensive pressure at the rim normally provided by Horford was absent as Chriss simply boxed out the undersized Rozier, allowing for Bledsoe to lay in a reverse layup without the threat of having his shot blocked.

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Boston’s lack of depth in the frontcourt was highlighted throughout the ballgame, expressing the need for Horford to claim his 32.8 minutes per game. Center Kelly Olynyk was virtually invisible through 22 minutes of action, going 0-for-5 while failing to net a single point in the midst of turning the ball over on three separate occasions. Olynyk’s inability to rebound was also underlined, as he notched just three defensive rebounds while being caught out of position on various occasions when Phoenix’s shots hit the rim. Despite grabbing just 6.6 rebounds per game last month, Horford managed to record 10 boards in the Celtics’ 103-89 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 1 and is much steadier than Olynyk in his ability to keep offensive rebounders off of the glass.