Smart move: Take me out, coach
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
WALTHAM — Marcus Smart, who has been known to let his emotions boil over, had a different kind of response after fouling the Washington Wizards’ Bojan Bogdanovic, leading to a four-point play, with 7:08 left in the Celtics’ win Sunday in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Smart asked coach Brad Stevens to take him out. This wasn’t the first time. “I tell Brad to come get me, I usually wave over at the bench to tell them to come get me,” Smart said yesterday after practice. “Brad usually does a good job with helping me with that, getting me out, letting me get my thoughts together and putting me right back in. Some people probably think it was a little selfish of me. They’d think I was really mad at myself. But I really wasn’t. I just felt like at that moment we were up and my plays with the two turnovers back-to-back, and the two fouls, fouling a 3-point shooter — something we all know you’re not supposed to do — especially then he gets the and-one, that (gives) them rhythm and they keep going.
“I just felt like at that time for me and my team I wasn’t really doing anything to help. So those guys, everybody else was in there playing. It wouldn’t be fair for them and to this team for me to keep going and not give guys who’ve been playing well (the chance) to just keep going and allowing myself to keep making mistakes. So I think it’s from a maturity standpoint. Other people might look at it differently.”
Smart admittedly wouldn’t have made the same decision earlier in his career — or even earlier this season.
“At the beginning of the year I probably wouldn’t have done that,” he said. “But playing with this group of guys and this team and this coaching staff, and really getting to know these guys even more, it’s possible.”
No doubt about it
Isaiah Thomas underwent dental surgery to replace the upper front tooth he lost in the first quarter of Game 1 courtesy of an elbow from the Washington Wizards’ Otto Porter Jr. While he did miss the team’s practice, there is no question about Thomas’ availability for Game 2 tonight at the Garden.
“He’s playing,” Stevens said.
Stevens added that he had “no idea” if his All-Star point guard would require some additional form of mouth protection.
“He’s finishing up the dental work that he’s had. It’s pretty significant as you can imagine,” Stevens said at practice. “So he’s still in a dentist’s chair and will hopefully be able to come over later in the afternoon, kind of go through what we did, and go from there.”
Good to go, too
The Wizards’ Markieff Morris, who sprained an ankle in Game 1, checked in on his status.
“I’m playing tomorrow. It’s final,” Morris said before his team practiced at the Garden. “There’s nothing the doctors can say to me for me not to be able to play.”
Morris said he didn’t know if the foul that caused the injury was intentional by Al Horford, who had his feet under the shooter when he took a jump shot. Horford later walked over to Morris on the sideline to see how he was feeling.
“I’m not sure,” Morris said. “I’ll ask him though.”
Horford has a simple answer for Morris: The foul wasn’t intentional.
“I understand he’s frustrated,” Horford said. “One of my strengths is defense and challenging shots. It’s a tough break and I really feel bad for him. You don’t want anyone to get hurt. He’s a great player and I hope he’ll be ready to play.”