5 reasons not to discount the Celtics in the NBA playoffs

3. Al Horford

You’d be hard-pressed to find a big man who does more to contribute to his team in as many different aspects of the game than Al Horford.

He ranks in the top 25 league-wide in total rebounds, defensive rebounds, blocks, assists, 3-point percentage, win shares, defensive win shares, and defensive box score plus/minus.

His shooting percentage of 43.5 from beyond the 3-point line is seventh in the NBA and first among power forwards. His five assists per game rank second at his position, behind only Draymond Green, who has the benefit of passing to three of the best shooters of all time.

At 6-10, Horford can protect the rim, guard one-on-one in the post, and he is also athletic enough to step out and defend on the perimeter. His footwork and defensive awareness make him one of the best help defenders in the league and his leadership on defense makes everyone around him better.

Throughout his career in the playoffs, Horford has elevated his play and put up numbers that surpass his regular season stats in almost every major category. He’ll obviously need duplicate that this postseason to give the Celtics a shot at advancing past the first round.

As valuable as Kyrie Irving has been to the Celtics this year, Horford is the heart and soul of this team. With Kyrie out, expect Stevens to run the offense to run through Horford more and expect both his scoring and assist numbers to increase dramatically.