Al Horford Knows Celtics Must Be Vigilant To Protect Homecourt

The Celtics’ home record in the postseason isn’t abysmal, but there is room for improvement.

Head coach Joe Mazzulla this week wasn’t interested in entertaining the narrative of Boston’s home record in the playoffs when he pointed out the C’s are 4-2 at TD Garden after the first two rounds.

However, they’ll be going up against an Indiana Pacers team that went 6-0 at home in the playoffs, which helped them reach the Eastern Conference finals. The Celtics on paper shouldn’t have too much trouble against Rick Carlisle’s side, but they know they can’t take anything for granted.

“It’s very important. We talked it, it’s all about protecting homecourt,” Horford told reporters Tuesday, per CLNS. “We’re excited to play at home. What I’ve realized is that other teams come here, and they’re excited to play at the Garden. It’s one of those things that we have to make sure that since we worked so hard to get homecourt advantage, we have to do a great job and try to hold our own here. It’s gonna be a challenge. We have an opportunity to come out and establish ourselves.”

Boston went 3-2 in the regular season against the Pacers, and one of those games was an in-season tournament matchup. So the Celtics will need to be ready for Indiana after it’s coming off an emotional Game 7 win over the New York Knicks.

Tipoff for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals is scheduled for Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET.