{"id":205009,"date":"2025-10-06T13:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T13:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/205009\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T13:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T13:02:07","slug":"former-celtics-center-debuts-in-surprise-role-with-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/205009\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Celtics center debuts in surprise role with Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Al Horford took the floor for the first time for the Warriors<\/a> on Sunday night, helping his new team to a 111-103 preseason win over the Los Angeles Lakers. The stakes were low for the 39-year-old man in one of likely a few preseason tuneup appearances for the former Celtics<\/a> big man but he did a little bit of everything in his debut, stuffing the box score with three points, four rebounds, three blocks and a steal in 14 minutes. Notably, Steve Kerr elected to bring the big man off the bench in his first appearance with Draymond Green starting at center.<\/p>\n

\u201cFun,\u201d Kerr told reporters of Horford\u2019s debut<\/a>. \u201cJust to see the size and the shooting ability, passing ability, just the flow of the game. What an addition he is. We can play him with anybody. We played him with Quinten Post in the last four minutes left of the second quarter. We went on a huge run. So he fits any lineup, makes any lineup better, we\u2019re lucky to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horford\u2019s decision to play with the Warriors was largely influenced by the opportunity to play with Stephen Curry and that match looked seamless in their minutes together, with the veteran duo connecting on a pretty give-and-go in their first minutes together. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously high IQ, experience, championship caliber player,\u201d Stephen Curry told reporters in San Francisco of Horford. \u201cThat can really fit with any lineup out there. He gives us space, he gives us presence on the defensive end. You saw the pass he made to me out the corner on the give and go, so it\u2019s just kind of unspoken chemistry that will continue to get better. But he is kind of multi-dimensional as a five man. And excited to see what that looks like for me, for Jimmy, JK, Draymond, any lineup you can throw him out there at the five and he kind of lifts the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horford came off the bench for the Celtics for the first time in his career over the past two seasons but he ended up starting the majority of those appearances in Boston filling in for any other sidelined starters with 75 starts in his 125 appearances. Steve Kerr acknowledged last week that he was considering bringing Horford off the bench and going with a smaller lineup look despite the fact the big man is the best center on the roster. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to preserve all of our older guys some,\u201d Kerr said Sunday night. \u201cAs best we can, have them ready for the playoffs. So that\u2019s the idea. There\u2019s no question he\u2019s still got it, he\u2019s still an incredible player and great fit for us. It\u2019s really fun to see him with our group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horford averaged 27 minutes per game over the last two seasons but that\u2019s a number the Warriors may try to reduce more in hopes of keeping the 18-year-veteran as his best for the postseason. Horford and the Warriors will face the Lakers in a road matchup to kickoff their regular season schedule on Oct. 21. <\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Al Horford took the floor for the first time for the Warriors on Sunday night, helping his new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-205009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}