Kyrie Irving and Al Horford already look like they’ve been teammates for years
The Thunder desperately needed a stop. Following a dominant first half in which they scored 55 points and held the Celtics to only 37 points, they found themselves trailing by four with 48.8 seconds remaining in the game. Billy Donovan was counting on his starting lineup to get the job done, with Andre Roberson picking up Kyrie Irving at the top of the perimeter and Steven Adams guarding Al Horford in the weakside corner.
Rather than running the same pick-and-roll that got them back in the game — Irving as the ball-handler and Horford as the roller — the Celtics had Marcus Smart set a screen for Irving while Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris spaced the floor around them. Smart didn’t make contact with Roberson on the screen when Irving started to make his move towards the basket, but his presence was enough to get Roberson on Irving’s hip. Since Paul George and Carmelo Anthony were focused on preventing their assignments from getting an open 3-point attempt, it left Adams as the Thunder’s only hope of stopping Irving from getting the game-sealing layup.
Irving made it seem as though he was going to kiss a layup off the glass by holding the ball in front of him, but it was bait to lure Adams away from Horford. As soon as Adams left his feet to protect the basket, Irving made him pay by kicking the ball out to Horford in the corner for what ended up being the biggest shot of the game.
Irving has never played with a center like Horford before. Anderson Varejao was the starting center for the Cavaliers when Irving made his debut in 2011, and Varejao was quickly replaced by Tristan Thompson when injuries continued to keep him out of the lineup. Had the same sequence happened with either of them on the floor, they would’ve positioned themselves in the dunker spot for a dump-off or offensive rebound as opposed to the corner for a 3-pointer or midrange pull-up.
Read More: Ben Simmons is already making passes like a veteran point guard
It’s possible the result would’ve ultimately been the same — a 2-pointer to put the Celtics up by six points — but it’s unlikely. Whereas Varejao or Thompson hanging out on the baseline would’ve made it easier for the Thunder to defend the action with two players, Horford’s comfort stepping out to the 3-point line forced them to make costly rotations. Horford settled for a mid-range pull-up in this particular situation, but he could’ve just as easily passed the ball to Anthony’s assignment (Marcus Morris) for a shot he made 35.7 percent of the time last season.
The reason Anthony closed out on Horford in the way he did is because Horford is a legitimate threat from the perimeter. He attempted 232 catch-and-shoot 3-pointers last season and made 36.2 percent of those opportunities. The only centers to make more of those shots were Karl-Anthony Towns, Marreese Speights, Marc Gasol, DeMarcus Cousins, Frank Kaminsky and Brook Lopez. Horford finds himself in similar company through the opening month of this season with an average of 3.0 catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts per game and a 42.4 percent success rate.
In the case of Anthony, it doesn’t help that he watched Horford do this two minutes earlier to give the Celtics their largest lead of the game:
The kicker is Horford is dependent on his teammates to create those shots — 84 of his 86 made 3-pointers last season were assisted — which speaks to the need of pairing him with scoring point guard who can consistently draw his defender away from him. Like Isaiah Thomas, who assisted Horford more than any other Celtic last season, Irving does his best work in the pick-and-roll. Although Irving doesn’t have the reputation of being a great passer, pick-and-rolls involving Horford are far simpler to read than the ones he ran with Varejao and Thompson due to the gravity Horford provides as a shooter.
Further complicating matters for the defense is the value Horford brings as a passer and screener from the center position. Because of his shooting, Horford’s defender can’t simply abandon him to protect the paint when he has the ball on the perimeter. It leads to plays like this, with Horford’s shooting putting Bam Adebayo in a tricky situation as a help defender when Irving takes Goran Dragic off the dribble:
The combination is why the Celtics were at the top of the league in handoff frequency and near the bottom of the league in pick-and-roll frequency last season. Even though Thomas and Irving are as good as it gets in the pick-and-roll, putting the ball directly in Horford’s hands before he hands it off to them and sets a screen makes it harder for his defender to hang back in the paint to take away scoring opportunities at the rim.
If teams overplay in those situations to prevent Irving from getting a handoff, it usually means the paint is wide open for a cut to the basket.
While the season is still young, the early returns for Irving and Horford are encouraging. Outside of the five minutes Gordon Hayward played in the season opener, the Celtics are averaging 107.4 points per 100 possessions with both Irving and Horford on the court, which is equivalent to the Timberwolves (107.7) and Cavaliers (107.3) so far this season. They’ve been just as good on the other end of the floor — 91.9 points per 100 possessions — giving them a net rating of 15.5 points per 100 possessions in their 304 minutes together.
Next: 2018 NBA Draft Big Board: Version 1.0
The fact that they’ve been able to establish a strong chemistry as quickly as they have bodes well for when Hayward returns because he’ll give the Celtics another excellent shooter and an elite pick-and-roll scorer who should benefit from Horford’s versatility as much as Irving has. Such is the luxury of having a versatile center in Horford who is more than happy being a complementary piece in a dynamic system.