Boston Celtics: 3 players that must step up in Game 5 of NBA Finals

Boston Celtics player No. 2) Al Horford

All season long, Al Horford has been the steady hand that’s helped stabilize the young troops, keeping them level-headed even when things were rough early on and, ultimately, played a major role in the team’s midseason turnaround.

Now in essentially a must-win Game 5, they’re going to need him to play at the heights in which fans and his teammates know that he can in order for them to have the best chance of coming away with their third win of the series.

For the most part throughout their playoff run, the veteran big has continued his steady all-around production, boasting 11.9 points, 9.1 boards, and 1.4 blocks per game on 51 percent shooting from the floor and 45.6 percent shooting from deep.

However, from time to time we’ve seen a few lackluster showings from the man–we get it, people can’t always be at their best–, and Game 4 could be argued as being one of them, for he finished with just eight points and six rebounds on a lowly 33 percent shooting from the field.

Granted, he did also finish with four assists, but the Boston Celtics could have used a bit more aggression from him in the scoring department, especially late in the game when they couldn’t buy themselves a bucket (in the fourth period, Horford attempted just two shots and registered three points).

On Monday night, the C’s are going to need yet another vintage performance from Big Al, one where he stuffs the stat sheet to the tune of something similar to last round’s Game 5 against Miami where he sported a log line of 16 points, seven boards, five assists, two blocks, and a steal on 62.5 percent shooting from the floor.

Boston went on to win this outing by 13.

Hopefully, with a performance somewhere close to this, the outcome will prove to be the same.