Thanks in large part to Horford’s expert positioning, the Celtics are both fundamentally sound and disruptive, a style that was the league’s toughest defense to score on last season. His ability to guard everyone from opposing centers to high-scoring wings sets the tone for a team that can switch everything and play with abandon. It’s on defense where Horford really makes his mark. His ability to shoot from behind the three-point line stretches the defense and allows all those slashers to attack the basket without a shot blocker hovering. On offense, Horfrd provides ballast and balance with his unselfish passing and underrated playmaking. The big man is the team’s anchor both offensively and defensively and emotional rock. If Horford isn’t the team’s best player - a tiresome argument that will no doubt be rekindled again at some point this season - then he’s their most important one. His challenge this season is to provide all that while embracing the physical demands of holding down the center spot. That isn’t a problem for Horford, who has always been the selfless star on any team he’s played, going back to his college days at the University of Florida. To make that final jump, it will require all those wonderful intangible qualities that made the C’s so unique last season, along with a dose of selflessness from their star-studded cast. With LeBron James taking his talents to the Lakers, the East is finally wide open with the Celtics right at the front of the line. If last season was about incorporating new faces and learning on the job, this one is about opportunity. We understand what’s in front of us and we have to go earn it. That’s the one thing we’ve harped on, we have to start building it back up. “Our values were trying to play Celtic basketball, really embrace that, like the Celtics of old played. “Last year was a unique team,” Horford says following the team’s first practice sessions. The one constant in all of this is Al Horford. Take those all-star talents, blend them with Brown and Tatum, add in a bench that goes 11-deep, and the Celtics have the appearance of a team that’s ready for a Finals push so long as they are all committed to the cause on a nightly basis. With Irving and Hayward back in the lineup, the C’s now have four players who could average 20 a game. Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving are baaaaaack! In addition, Daniel Theis, a valuable backup big man, is also returning following his season-ending injury. This year’s team must incorporate Hayward, who played all of five minutes before suffering a season-ending injury, as well as Irving, who missed the postseason run with his own injury. Terry Rozier stepped into the starting lineup, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum took on larger roles offensively, and Marcus Morris and Marcus Smart provided everything else. By the end of last season, the Celtics were who they were largely because of Irving’s and Hayward’s absence. That overlooks an important consideration. That spirit of togetherness carried them through injuries Irving and Hayward en route to a 55-win season and within a game of the NBA Finals. Just about every player from last year’s roster is back for this season, and that group had forged an admirable identity based on toughness, versatility, and playing to its strengths. There’s a tendency to think that the Celtics will pick up right where they left off last season, only now with more offensive firepower. It signaled that Kyrie was back, Gordon Hayward was back, and that defense anchored by Horford’s shape-shifting ability to be everywhere was once again ready to spark a comeback. Irving’s shot gave the starters a one-point edge over a feisty reserve unit that figures to push those starters every step of the way. As if on cue, the starters’ defense, led by Al Horford, made a couple of stops and with the clock winding down and the game on the line, Kyrie Irving shook free on the perimeter and buried a three-pointer. BOSTON - When the curtain rose on a new Celtics season at their impressive new practice facility, the star-studded starting five was down a couple of buckets to the gritty reserves.
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