NBA FINALS: CELTICS VS. WARRIORS

June 7, 2022

Al Horford

Boston Celtics

Practice Day

Q. Just want to see with the amount of Dominicans that do live in the Boston area, have you had an opportunity to engrain yourself in that community at all, or has it been tough to do that?

AL HORFORD: From the time that I was here before, I've grown to have good relationships here. I know it's special. A lot of people here are enjoying the ride of the group, of our team.

But yeah, it's fair to say that I've been in contact with the community, for sure.

Q. In any way in particular?

AL HORFORD: Well, definitely I have a list of restaurants. I don't know if I'm going to share that. There's a lot of them here, though. There's a lot of them here. Some good go-tos. Not only here but also there's a small community, Lawrence, Mass. It's a little further north. And then my church that I've been going to here, but that's not only Dominican, it's all types of nationalities.

Q. You talked about having to look at video of the last game. They did do a pretty good job of restricting your shots. What do you see? What do you think you can free up to do?

AL HORFORD: Yeah, after looking at that, the one thing that we all felt, not only for me in general, is just us being able to be in the right positions when guys are making plays and making sure that we're giving some of our guys outlets. We just have better ball movement.

We feel like those things will open things up, not only for me but for all the other guys.

Q. Do you see a lot of opportunities out there that you guys didn't necessarily see the other night?

AL HORFORD: Yeah, yeah. After looking at the film, no question, there are some areas that we can put ourselves in better positions to be able to get shots. It's something that I'm looking forward to for the next game.

Q. I don't think you have lost back-to-back games since late March. I think Jayson and Jaylen missed one of those games. If you had to point to something that allowed your team to bounce back like this, what would it be?

AL HORFORD: I think it's just the focus of our group, especially when we're faced with adversity. I feel like our group, we have shown, like you said, time and time again, we come closer, tighter and we focus more on the things that we need to do.

It's tough because it is competitive. You're playing at a high level, but I do believe that our group really, really locks in. It's something that there's like that edge to us that we just want to be better, and we usually respond whenever we're hit.

Q. I'm wondering, we've reached the point in the series where both teams have been sharing the same oxygen for eight, nine days at this point, got more competitive in Game 2, a lot of intense moments. But you also have these relationships on both sides, maybe Team USA, international play. You know the players on both sides. What's the mood when it comes to facing the same clash of humans day after day?

AL HORFORD: Yeah, well, we've had some experience with that even in the past few series, just with the amount of times that you're having to face and play and talk about and study. That's just the way kind of the Playoffs are at this point.

Obviously, I don't care for anybody else but our team. I really don't. My focus is on our group. We have a job to do, and we're going to go out there and try to do it as best we can.

Q. From your first stint with the Celtics to now, what growth have you seen from Jaylen Brown, and how critical has his maturation been to this entire era of Celtics basketball?

AL HORFORD: Huge growth from Jaylen. Jaylen came in the league and everybody knew the abilities, the potential that he had and all those things. But it's not only his game, it's his poise, his maturation, him being a leader on the team. He's one of our leaders. The way that he takes care of himself, takes care of his body, the work that he's putting in, all those things have paid off for him.

When he got here as a rookie, I don't know if I could have said any of those things. He's always been a great guy and things like that, but he just didn't understand obviously how to be a pro, be in these positions. He had some ability, but the growth that I've seen with him over the years, it's really impressive. He continues to grow and improve.

But just from him understanding how to play team ball, how to embrace challenges, he has been challenged a lot this year, and he responds. That's the one thing that I've seen with him. That's the one thing that I'm most proud of him, just the way that he's able to embrace challenges, respond and deliver.