Al Horford: the LeBron James stopper?

On Saturday night, the Boston Celtics took on a red-hot Los Angeles Lakers team in one of the most anticipated matchups of this year’s regular season. The last time the two teams faced off against each other, the Lakers ran circles around the Celtics. But this time around, the reigning champion Celtics got their lick back with a 111-101 win over the Lakers at home.

While LeBron James’ groin injury will garner the most headlines, the Celtics’ defense deserves plenty of credit for slowing down the Lakers — with the ageless Al Horford showing that he still has plenty of gas left in the tank despite being already 38 years of age. Horford got switched onto James and Luka Doncic plenty of times and didn’t just survive — he thrived.

In fact, Horford has gotten the upper hand over James plenty of times this season; the Celtics veteran, in two matchups against the Lakers star this season, held him to 2-12 shooting from the field and 0-4 from beyond the arc, for a grand total of six points for the King, as pointed out by Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston.

Horford may not be the athlete he once was, but his feel for the game has only gotten better with age, and his basketball IQ has helped him keep in step while defending in isolation. He doesn’t bite on feints and hesitations; the only way to beat him is with speed and athleticism, and the Celtics are almost always well-covered whenever Horford is isolated.

There’s no coincidence that Horford, throughout his career, has been part of plenty of winning teams. He just provides his teams with whatever they need, and the Celtics have gotten plenty of timely three-pointers and defensive stops from the ageless wonder throughout the course of his very successful tenure with the team.

Celtics rise to the occasion in huge win over the Lakers

© Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

The Celtics may not be as dominant as they were last year, but make no mistake about it: they are still right at the top of the list when it comes to favorites to win it all this year. Their performance against the Lakers proves that they can still bring in when the lights are at their brightest.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, in particular, played at a level that showed that they weren’t going to lose to the Lakers’ new-look squad. They combined for 71 points, while the rest of the squad played excellent defense. And the Celtics are only going to get better when they get Kristaps Porzingis back from injury.