Before the 2018-19 season started, Al Horford and the Boston Celtics were the heavy favorites to win the Eastern Conference. The Celtics went to Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals without the services of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, so everyone assumed this year's team would be even better.
The 2018-19 regular season, though, was rocky for Boston. While the Celtics showed flashes of being a championship team, there were a lot of nights where they looked like a dysfunctional unit filled with players who had their own agendas.
Horford has been in the NBA for a long time, so he tried to stay optimistic throughout the regular season, and it looks like his positive attitude is paying off. The Celtics won six of their last eight games to close out the season and won Game 1 of their first-round series against the Indiana Pacers with ease.
Horford believes the Celtics are finally starting to put it all together at the perfect time:
“I've wanted to be optimistic, but all year I never felt that we had turned a corner,” says Horford, via Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. “We showed some flashes, but then we don't look the same. But right now, we're starting to figure it out as a group. We're really playing good basketball. I still feel like we can put this thing together.”
The Celtics are the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Many expected them to be the first seed, but now that the playoffs are here, Boston could flip the switch and show the rest of the league it is indeed a title contender.
Horford and the Celtics will look to take a commanding 2-0 series lead over the Pacers on Wednesday.
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