After sweeping through the first two rounds of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, LeBron James is poised to make a seventh straight trip to the NBA Finals. And if his postseason history against Al Horford is indicative of how this series will play out, the Cavaliers could have another long rest before their championship round.
Al Horford has an 0-12 record against LeBron James in the NBA Playoffs
It isn’t all Horford’s fault, but he hasn’t been an All-Star when he meets James in the postseason.
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
In 37 minutes of action during the Celtics’ Game 1 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, he scored just 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting. It marked yet another chapter in his playoff woes against James, as Boston went on to trail by as much as 28 in a 117-104 defeat.
Horford’s team has been swept every time it’s met James in the playoffs. He’s now lost 12 straight games to James, dating back to his 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals series as a member of the Atlanta Hawks. That number would have been 13 had he not sat out of Game 2 of that series with an injury.
Horford scored more than 15 points only once in those 12 games. His playoff career high against James was a 24-point Game 3 last year — Cleveland still won by 13.
In total, Horford is averaging 10 points per game in 12 losses to James. He went scoreless in two of those games and scored just two points in another. Realistically, the losses don’t all fall squarely on Horford’s shoulders. He shot 50 percent or better in five of those games on a team with several other scoring options available.
But while this might not be an indictment on Horford, it shines the light on how brilliant James has been. The Cavaliers have beaten Horford’s Hawks (and now Celtics) by an average of 14 points, including a 30-point shellacking and two 25-point blowouts. Only three of those 12 games have been decided by single digits.
The Celtics will need their $113 million man to put up more than just 11 points if they hope to salvage what’s left of this series after the debilitating whooping they took on Wednesday.
But if history repeats itself, which it tends to, the Celtics could be headed toward fishing sooner than they had hoped.
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