It has been tough sledding for Philadelphia 76ers big man Al Horford recently. He has put up solid stat lines, but his field goal percentages weren’t always up to par.
On Saturday night when the Los Angeles Lakers were hard-charging and they had cut a 22 point Sixers lead down to five with 5:21 left, the veteran big man stepped up in a huge way.
Horford drilled a jumper off a pick-and-pop which was then followed by a 3-pointer and another jumper to put the game away and preserve a 108-91 win for the undermanned Sixers. Those seven straight points allowed him to finish with 16 points on the night as he came up big for his team.
“Those were the kind of positions I would like to be in,” said Horford postgame. “Ben (Simmons) did great at what he does, draw two, flip it back, and that was a big shot for us.”
This is why the Sixers brought Horford in over the summer. It was a big effort for him and for him to be able to these big shots is what he does. He has been able to make these shots all throughout his career and to do it in a Sixers uniform is what they have been waiting for.
“What we saw was Al Horford,” said coach Brett Brown. “That shouldn’t surprise any of us. There were times I wasn’t entirely comfortable putting LeBron James and Anthony Davis in a pick-and-roll, but I felt like how they were playing it, we might be able to get separation with Al Horford and we did.”
This was the type of game that Sixers teams in the past would let slip away. They would not be able to have the mental toughness to be able to make big plays down the stretch of games and that’s what Horford brings to the table.
“The game was fragile at that point,” Brown added. “We came out and they got two turnovers and where we’re trying to post Tobias (Harris) on a duck in play on Danny Green, they came from the weak side, we got stuck in mud, and there was at least two and maybe three plays you’re like ‘I wish we could have those back’ and the game was fragile. Then Al Horford stepped up and he was really big tonight. Good for him.”
The Sixers will continue to reap the benefits of having Horford in these positions until Joel Embiid returns from his injury fairly soon. They take on the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday as they look to continue to get more out of the big man moving forward. [lawrence-related id=24244,24235,24216]