Al Horford continues to be the glue that holds Celtics together

BOSTON -- Usually, a night when both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown struggle to hit shots spells doom for the Boston Celtics. Al Horford wouldn't let things play out like that Thursday night against the Warriors.

While Tatum and Brown eventually got into a rhythm and hit some big shots in crunch time, the Celtics would not have beaten Golden State without Horford. Boston's veteran leader live up to his "glue guy" status by keeping everything together when Tatum and Brown were busy being brick masons. He hit some big shots of his own, and rejected what should have been a few easy buckets by the Warriors. 

Horford did his best to ignore the noise leading up to Thursday night's Finals rematch, but his play painted a much different picture. This game -- Golden State's first one back in Boston since claiming last year's NBA crown on the TD Garden floor -- meant something to Horford. A lot of something.

He sat out the first meeting with the Warriors in San Fran last month, so he never got a crack to rinse away the bad taste from the Finals. But Horford provided everything the Celtics needed on Thursday night.

"I wanted to come out here and I wanted to win," Horford said after Boston's 121-118 overtime victory. "I wanted to win really bad. It's a regular season game -- just one game and it's over. But it's an important game."

Horford filled in all the blanks left by Tatum and Brown's struggles early in the victory. He took advantage of Golden State's small lineup and poured in eight points while pulling down five rebounds in the first six minutes. He brought a level of intensity that the 36-year-old reserves for the biggest moments when the Celtics need it the most.

That intensity never wavered during Horford's 37 minutes on the floor -- his third-biggest workload of the season. When the Celtics needed a spark, Horford was there to strike the flint.

Whether it was a chase-down block, which he had two of, or a clutch three, Horford was there to answer the call. He sank a corner three with just over a minute left to bring the Celtics within 104-103, and followed it up with a chase-down block on Jordan Poole.

Horford splashed home another triple in overtime, giving the Celtics a 115-111 lead with just over two minutes to play. It was the final bucket of his 20-point evening, which also saw Horford pull down 10 rebounds and reject three shots.

The Celtics dominated the paint Thursday night, and Horford was a big reason why. He was a big part of every aspect of the win, which is exactly what we've come to expect when he's on the floor.

But his impact is usually in the areas that don't show up in the box score. On Thursday night, the box score belonged to Horford.

"I joked with Al. He came out and looked like he was 25 today," Tatum said of his elder. "Two days off. I said, 'You need more two days in a row.' He came out and set the tone. He really did. We all kind of followed behind that for the rest of the night."

While it was just one of 82, Thursday night was an important win for the Celtics. It showed that they can win when their stars are a bit off, and it showed that Al Horford is still an extremely important piece on a team playing for a title.