Al Horford is the luxury Joel Embiid and the 76ers needed

The Philadelphia 76ers were already contenders, but Al Horford represents a luxury for both Joel Embiid and the team that could push them over the top.

Had the Philadelphia 76ers possessed a capable backup center, they might have won the 2018-19 NBA championship. While there’s a lot of grey area in that kind of “what if?” territory, their dominance with Joel Embiid on the court vs. their hemorrhaging of points without him spoke for itself.

In order to address that problem, and to remove the biggest threat to Embiid’s superiority in the East, Philly brought in Al Horford. Both with and without “The Process” this season, he’s already proving to be exactly what the doctor ordered.

While the 76ers suffered their first loss of the season Monday night at the hands of the surprising Phoenix Suns, they were the NBA’s last remaining unbeaten at 5-0, and even in defeat, Horford’s value shone through at its brightest.

With Embiid serving the second game of his two-game suspension, the 33-year-old Horford was a thorn in Phoenix’s side all night, finishing with a season-high 32 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block. He was absolutely lights out, shooting 13-for-20 from the field and reverting back to the mean with his 3-point touch, going 5-for-8 from deep.

“The last couple of games, obviously, with Joel being out, I felt like I’ve had to step up a little more and be more aggressive looking to score,” Horford said. “And tonight, the way they were defending me, it was kind of giving me a lot of looks and I took advantage of that.”

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Aron Baynes, who was Horford’s backup during their time with the Boston Celtics and is now starting for Phoenix while Deandre Ayton serves a 25-game suspension, wasn’t even remotely surprised by the performance.

“No, definitely not, I know what Al’s capable of,” Baynes said. “He’s a perennial All-Star and he’s out there doing his thing. He’s surrounded by a lot of talent as well so it’s kind of hard, you’ve gotta pick your poison at some point. Any chance he gets a little space, he can really create and get going. So it’s fun seeing that, but maybe just a little bit less next time out.”

With the Suns honing in on creating a wall in front of Ben Simmons and trying to limit Tobias Harris, Horford hit timely shot after timely shot. He drilled buzzer-beating 3s at the end of the first quarter and the second quarter to take away Phoenix’s momentum, and he hit clutch jumper after clutch jumper in the fourth to keep the game tight.

In the process, he reminded everyone why the 76ers wanted him so bad in the first place.

“He’s one of those rare bigs who can post up and step outside and knock down shots,” said Suns coach Monty Williams, who was an assistant with Philadelphia last year. “And he’s so crafty. You don’t know if he’s gonna shoot it or pass it sometimes because [his move] is kind of slow, so your close-out is a little off, and then he just ends up taking the shot and knocking it down.

“He hit the mid-range shots tonight, he was at the nail playing isolation like Dirk [Nowitzki]. He’s just a really good basketball player. He’s giving them a lot of coverage. Without Jo in the game and you’re able to go to Al and he puts up 32 points? What a luxury.”

“Luxury” seems to be the perfect word to describe Horford, considering how well he’s filled in for Embiid during this two-game suspension. Over that span, the Sixers are 1-1 despite missing their best player, with Horford averaging 28.5 points, 5.5 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals per game. He’s shot 56.8 percent overall, including 6-for-12 from downtown.

“It was very similar,” Baynes said of Horford’s big scoring night. “They’re getting him the ball where he can go to work. I know exactly where he’s able to make the most of his possessions and he’s getting to those spots.”

So far, Horford appears to be inching toward a bounce-back season, averaging 18.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.0 steals per game on 49.5 percent shooting from the floor and 36.7 percent from 3 (on a career-high 5.0 attempts per game). His plus/minus of +8.7 trails only Embiid and Josh Richardson, and the team has been night-and-day with him compared to when he rests:

• Offensive rating: 109.4 with Horford, 98.1 without him
• Defensive rating: 96.8 with Horford, 103.3 without him
• Net Rating: +12.6 with Horford, -5.2 without him

Expecting Horford to post such eye-popping numbers on a nightly basis throughout his 13th season is obviously unrealistic, especially once Embiid is back on the court. However, the early returns from this new Twin Towers combo have been just as promising.

While 42 minutes over three games together is a minuscule sample size, the Sixers have posted a Net Rating of +15.7 with those two on the court. Their offensive rating of 95.7 isn’t great, but their defensive rating of 80.0 is stellar, showing these two have a very good chance of making it work on defense at least.

Head coach Brett Brown believes the offensive chemistry will come with time.

“It’s true big ball,” he said. “I think that it’s easier for a legitimate 5 to play with a stretch-4. When you start talking like big ball, like center/center-forward, which is what Al is, I think that spatial relationship takes time. When you fast track and you play it out, you can see how there’s a high-low relationship, there’s a duck-in, there’s buddy ball, big ball. They can find each other and play off each other, I’ve seen snippets of that.”

Their budding rapport is important, but perhaps just as important is being able to stagger their minutes and get Embiid a breather without worrying about everything falling apart during a backup 5’s minutes. The plus/minus numbers from last year are still stunning, even months later:

• Regular season: +373 in 2,154 minutes with Embiid, -152 in 1,807 minutes without him
• Playoffs: +143 in 334 minutes with Embiid, -107 in 242 minutes without him
• Raptors series: +90 in 237 minutes with Embiid, -109 in 99 minutes without him

Even in the worst-case scenario where lineups with Horford and Embiid are somehow untenable (which feels unlikely given Horford’s defensive abilities, the talent around him and how even average 3-point shooting on his part will spread the floor), his ability to spell the Sixers’ best player without letting leads crumble will be monumental come playoff time.

After all, Embiid has an extensive injury history to account for. He’s never played more than 64 games in a season since he was drafted in 2014, he’s never logged more than 34 minutes per game in a season, and he missed the first two potential years of his career due to injury before playing a grand total of 31 games in 2016-17.

Embiid has logged more than 60 games in each of the last two seasons, but the Sixers won’t have to push him to play more than he should during an 82-game regular-season slog … especially with a guy like Horford capable of filling in, whether it’s due to suspension, injury or load management.

“To have Al Horford in our program when you do not have Joel Embiid, it’s steak or lobster — they’re all pretty good,” Brett Brown said. “He sure has been a little bit like Tobias, just all class, a true pro and a true luxury for me.”