Celtics notebook: Al Horford, Teammate of the Year? ‘No-brainer,’ Joe Mazzulla says
Al Horford is a finalist for the NBA s Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award His coach believes he should win it in a landslide It s a no-brainer that he should get it Joe Mazzulla stated before the Celtics hosted the Phoenix Suns on Friday night at TD Garden But you can t really put into words what he s able to do the respect that he has of the guys The -year-old Horford is the universally respected veteran leader of Boston s locker room He s also still performing at a high level in Year of his NBA career especially in the second half of this season Horford averaged points and rebounds per meeting in March including three of his top five scoring efforts of this season In Monday s win over Memphis the big man scored points his highest total since Tournament of the NBA Finals and added eight rebounds in minutes off the bench Several of Horford s best performances this season have come against superstar opponents from Giannis Antetokounmpo to Nikola Jokic to LeBron James What people don t know is how innately competitive he really is day in and day out and he just sets the tone more with his actions than anything else Mazzulla explained I really hope he gets it He deserves it He s one of the best teammates and we re lucky to have him Suns coach Mike Budenholzer who coached a young Horford with the Atlanta Hawks in the late s also had high praise for the Celtics oldest athlete He s such a smart athlete Budenholzer noted He s just a high-IQ guy both ends of the court Selfless Does anything to win He s just a unique talent and a unique individual that s continued to impact winning Budenholzer also coached Celtics guard Jrue Holiday during his time in Milwaukee Holiday is a finalist for the NBA Sportsmanship Award which he previously won with the Bucks in Jrue is just kind of the ultimate winner the Suns coach announced He makes so plenty of little plays at really both ends of the court I think everybody talks about how great he is defensively and he takes on tough matchups he gets his hands on balls He just does so countless little things But offensively it s similar His selflessness his ability to create space in places where maybe other people don t want to go he learns how to thrive in those spaces and loves the big moment He s a great athlete Ton of respect for him Tatum s MVP quality Jayson Tatum will not win NBA Majority Valuable Participant this season that top honor almost certainly will go to either Oklahoma City s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Denver s Jokic but he ll likely finish in the top six in MVP voting for the fourth consecutive year potentially as high as third Mazzulla was demanded to name his star participant s largest part valuable trait I think there s a lot of them right the coach replied I think the first one that comes to mind is just the leadership and he s one of the guys that sets the atmosphere for the organization You heard after the Brooklyn contest what Kristaps Porzingis declared about how Tatum sets the tone from his availability and playing every night Just his impact he has from a leadership standpoint And then the on-court stuff speaks for itself his rebounding his ability to be a playmaker his prospective assists his assists In the end only one guy can win the award and I still think whoever doesn t is still of an MVP caliber At that to me is more critical how you re able to do that and that s something he does well Tatum leads the Celtics in points rebounds and assists per match this season Celtics roster full-go Jaylen Brown who s been dealing with a painful knee injury was upgraded from questionable to available before Friday s encounter With Horford Holiday and Porzingis all returning after sitting out Wednesday s loss to Miami the Celtics had their entire roster available for the first time since Feb They were down at least one rotation participant in their previous games and missing at least one starter in of those and posted a - record in those contests We re just doing whatever makes the majority sense to put our guys in the best position and what gives us the best chance to win every night what gives us the best chance to win every single night and what gives us the best chance to be at our best every single night but also be at our best in the long term Mazzulla announced Nothing s guaranteed so looking too far ahead doesn t really matter We ve just got to continue to get better and better and put ourselves in position to be thriving and at the same time make sure our guys are in a position to be at their best Brown s medical and workload will be worth monitoring as the playoffs approach as he admitted after Wednesday s event that his injured knee was hurting him He can miss no more than one more regular-season tournament if he hopes to qualify for All-NBA or All-Defensive consideration but he declared that factor is not influencing his decision to play Bradley Beal returned to the Suns lineup Friday night but Kevin Durant missed the tournament with an ankle injury Off the rim Bill Chisholm leader of a group that agreed last month to buy the Celtics for billion was in attendance Friday night after also watching Wednesday s match from courtside seats Chisholm was raised in Georgetown Mass but lives in Northern California he and his family are house-hunting in the Boston area The sale is pending approval by the NBA s Board of Governors which is expected to vote in June Also on hand for Celtics-Suns Paul Pierce who chatted with Chisholm during pregame warmups and David Ortiz The Maine Celtics will visit the Osceola Magic this Sunday in the G League Eastern Conference finals G League MVP JD Davison stuffed the stat sheet in Maine s first two playoff games totaling points assists eight rebounds four steals and two blocks Second-year pro Jordan Walsh who s lost playing time with the big club to rookie Baylor Scheierman of late also played in both playoff games for Maine He tallied points and rebounds in Thursday s win over the Westchester Knicks