Analyst sends strong message on Boston Celtics ability to defend Joel Embiid: ‘That’s outdated’

One of the old tropes of the Boston Celtics-Philadelphia 76ers rivalry during the Joel Embiid era — mainly that Al Horford has the ability to hold the MVP candidate in check — is “outdated” according to Boston.com’s Tom Westerholm.

“We need to dispense with the idea that Al Horford can hold Joel Embiid in check 1-on-1,” Westerholm prefaced before saying, “That’s outdated. Embiid is too strong and too skilled at this stage in his career, and Horford might be too nearly-37-years-old.”

That line of thinking dates back to the 2018 Eastern Conference semifinals matchup between the two teams in which Embiid was kept to under 50% from the field in three of the five games of the C’s gentlemen’s sweep of Philadelphia.

Al Horford allows Boston Celtics more “intriguing set of defensive options”

Westerholm wasn’t totally down on the ability of Horford and the Boston Celtics to defend Embiid — in fact, it was quite the opposite. The Boston.com writer believes the Cs have the most “intriguing set of defensive options” to throw at the Sixers center.

“Horford does defend Embiid with more credibility than most players in the NBA, and that still matters even if Embiid fries everyone the Celtics throw at him individually,” Westerholm wrote. “Horford’s presence allows the Celtics a more intriguing set of defensive options than most teams can boast against the Sixers.”

Westerholm did point out that the Celtics haven’t given much of an indication of how they plan on defending Embiid this year, though.

“The only problem? We probably haven’t seen how the Celtics actually intend to defend Embiid in months,” Westerholm wrote. “Embiid scored 41 points in a late February win by the Celtics (you may remember Jayson Tatum’s game-winning triple), and then he pummeled them with 52 points in April. But the Celtics clearly had little interest in tipping their hand defensively against Embiid in either game – particularly the latter, in which Horford was almost never Embiid’s primary matchup.”