Early celebration not a Smart move
The Lakers, being young, got a little ahead of themselves. Nick Young went into his Swaggy P dance after hitting a 3-pointer in the first quarter, and the giddy feeling spread.
But it’s best not to put on these displays in front of Marcus Smart, who naturally took the early celebration personally over the course of the Celtics’ 113-107 win last night at the Garden.
Exactly 10 seconds after he checked in, Smart ripped the ball out of Timofey Mozgov’s hands, and started a fast break he polished off with a dunk. He stole the ball twice more in the first and fed Isaiah Thomas off the break each time. He had four steals by halftime, and five by the end of the game.
“I definitely did (see it),” Smart said of the Lakers’ early celebration. “They hit a couple shots, were dancing and mocking us and things like that like it’s just gonna be easy for them. That really persuaded me to go out there and do my best to shut that down.”
The Lakers didn’t necessarily make it easier by exposing the ball. Smart simply took what he wanted.
“Really it was just walking up and grabbing it,” he said. “They weren’t exposing it. They were setting screens real tight and trying to keep the ball real tight. I just made an amends to make sure I don’t get screened and I go get the ball.”
Players get it done
Brad Stevens and his assistants will coach the Eastern Conference in the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 19, which is naturally a point of pride for the players.
“We’re excited for those guys,” Smart said. “They put in endless hours and time to make sure we’re ready to go out there and compete and they deserve it, so I’m excited for them.
“(The coaches don’t talk about it) at all, and that’s the thing,” he said. “Not once have they mentioned about it coming up and about we need to win this game for that. It’s always been about the team, and when you’ve got guys like that on the coaching staff and when you’re playing with, it’s always fun and things just kind of work out that way.”
Advantage, Green
A member of the Celtics’ basketball operations staff — one of the many with analytics expertise — determined there was a 1-in8,292 chance that the Celtics and Lakers could have gone into last night’s game with 3,252 wins apiece.
One win later, and the Celtics at least for a day are the winningest team in NBA history, not to mention a game up on the Lakers.
Stevens, who grew up in Indiana watching both teams play on what felt like every Sunday, certainly couldn’t imagine the coincidence of the pregame tie.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s a unique enough rivalry that 100 years from now it will probably be tied again,” said the Celtics coach.
“It’s interesting because, being a kid from the Midwest, I was a guy that loved basketball and even though the Pacers were there in town I think my introduction to the NBA was those early ’80s Celtics games that were televised on TV that you’d see maybe the Celtics play the early game on Sunday, the Lakers play after. If you were lucky, you saw them both play against each other. That was another thing that inspired me to enjoy and love the game. And, obviously, as an Indiana kid, you’re seeing another Indiana kid ( Larry Bird) out there with the Celtics doing what he was doing and that just adds a layer to that. I’d say that that’s what it meant and then when you get here you realize it’s different, just because of the history and the excellence of the two organization.”
Lakers coach Luke Walton had a particularly interesting view, especially of the Celtics, once his father Bill joined the team for the 198586 season, and the family relocated to Cambridge.
“Obviously being a sports fan and a basketball junkie I love rivalries. It’s fun for everybody,” said Walton. “As a kid they were as good of memories as you could have. As an adult, they weren’t so great. But it’s two great organizations battling.”