Why Al Horford Was Encouraged By Celtics’ Performance In Win Vs. Magic

It seems as though the Boston Celtics don’t need to throw in the towel quite yet.

Days after Marcus Smart called out stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown after the Celtics dropped their third consecutive game — which led to a breakfast meeting Tuesday and a pseudo-players-only meeting before a team dinner that same night — Boston got back on track with a defeat of the Orlando Magic.

Veteran Al Horford was pleased with what the squad showed in the 92-79 victory, a departure from his comments from a week ago when he questioned the team’s lack of effort.

“I was encouraged,” Horford told reporters after Wednesday’s win. “We talked about just coming out, setting the tone on the defensive end and having that right energy. I feel like everybody’s very connected in doing the things that we needed to do. We showed some signs of consistency in that area … That was encouraging, because at this point we just need to be better as a group. I felt like after that third quarter, we were very consistent.”

Horford personally finished with another strong performance, logging 12 points,12 boards and seven assists.

The Celtics were able to put Wednesday’s game away after a strong third quarter, unlike what transpired against the Chicago Bulls at TD Garden days earlier — when they held an 18-point lead with less than six minutes to play but got brutally outscored in the final quarter.

Inconsistency has been a major theme of the Celtics season so far, so there’s no guarantee what will happen when they take the floor for the second game of a back-to-back Thursday against the Miami Heat.