Boston Celtics: 1 stud and 1 dud from too close for comfort win over OKC

Boston Celtics stud: Al Horford

Like many of the games that the Boston Celtics have played over this second-half stretch, there were many players who were deserving of the label “stud of the game.”

From Grant Williams and his continuous hustle to Payton Pritchard and his oh-so-trusty shooting stroke, there were a number of talents that could have made their way onto this slide today.

That said, to us, we feel that Al Horford proved himself to be the C’s unsung stud.

While his point totals weren’t all that impressive (finished the game with just three points on one attempt from the field), his impact everywhere else was far more noteworthy than his shy shooting stroke.

Right from the jump, the veteran big showed that he was far more interested in getting his teammates involved in the scoring department rather than looking for his own attempts, as he managed to put up five assists by the time quarter one came to a close.

On top of this, without Williams in the lineup, Horford served as the C’s last line of defense on the less glamorous side of the ball where, in turn, he helped in a major way to keep the team’s reputation of being the top defense alive.

By game’s end, the big man wound up finishing with a stat-sheet stuffing logline of seven assists, five boards, three steals, and three blocks.

One of the most underrated players during Boston’s midseason turnaround, in his return to Oklahoma City Al Horford proved that you don’t have to drop a massive amount of points or throw down monstrous highlight jams in order to have a major impact on a team to attain a hard-fought victory.