Smart infusion
Energy burst sends C’s onward
It took the Celtics seven games to get through Milwaukee. It was difficult. It was maddening at times.
But it was a relative breeze compared to what comes next.
With 3:39 remaining in last night’s do-or-vacation event, the stoked citizens began chanting, “We want Philly.” The reflex was very much a be careful what you wish for kind of thing.
The 76ers aren’t what they were earlier in the season, and, unfortunately for local interests, neither are the Celtics. Philadelphia has added veteran help, while the C’s continued to lose stars.
Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward were watching from the sidelines as the Celts dealt with this one. Later, as Hayward left the building, he was told he was missing all the fun.
“I know, right?” he replied with a smile.
But, as we’ve noted, the fun will be harder from here.
“I mean, we’re going to have to play great,” said Brad Stevens. “We’re going to have to play great. We know that — especially if Jaylen (Brown, injured hamstring last night) is unavailable. That’s just another thing that we’re going to have to find a way to, you know, somebody else is going to have to step up and play great.
“We’re very well aware of Philly, how well they play. I’ve watched them all the way through the playoffs. I’ve watched all their games. They’ve been incredible.”
But living in last evening’s moment, the 112-96 dismantling of the Bucks was a measure of satisfaction this team deserves to savor — at least until this morning when they get served the Sixers scouting report for breakfast.
Al Horford fired away for 26 points, and Terry Rozier hit five 3-pointers to match him. Jayson Tatum had 20 points, and though Giannis Antetokounmpo is still Greek, he wasn’t so freakish with 22 points in 7-for-17 shooting.
But, as always, numbers don’t always tell the full story. Among the larger keys for the Celtics was a guy who finished with five points, Marcus Smart.
The Celtics were certainly playing hard as things began, but at the same time they were lax. They were running themselves out of position on defense, leading to a 9-0 Milwaukee run and a 15-10 shortfall.
Smart checked into the game with 5:43 left, and he was on the floor as Marcus Morris was called for a maybe-foul on Antetokounmpo, who hit the two free throws for the aforementioned fivepoint edge.
Of the 22 remaining points in the period, 20 belonged to the Celtics. Smart hadn’t just changed the direction of the game; he’d altered its very chemical composition. Shane Larkin, too. While Smart was a plus16 in less than half a quarter, Larkin was a plus-9 in 3:03 for a 30-17 lead. The fact Aron Baynes was outscoring Antetokounmpo at this point, 6-4, was a dollop of icing to the Greenhearts — albeit a state of affairs that wouldn’t last long.
But these Celts have had trouble dealing with prosperity in this series, and so it was at the start of the second when the Bucks opened with a 13-2 run. The unthinkable began to get thought. The C’s were up by just two, and could it possibly be that the No. 7 seed could eliminate the second on the latter’s floor. I mean, it wouldn’t have been quite UMBC over Virginia or Loyola over most of your bracket, but still.
Then Horford went for two hoops and Rozier added two more to restore the building’s heart rate to a more reasonable level.
Smart was on the pine to start the second quarter, but he returned at the 5:30 mark to draw a deadball foul on Antetokounmpo on the inbounds play.
And what Marcus did 57 seconds later was a legal crime in broad Gardenlight. He picked Khris Middleton’s pocket near midcourt in front of nearly 19,000 witnesses, drove toward the free throw line and lofted a lob to Horford for a layup and an 11-point Celtic lead.
Then, as the Bucks reached for a timeout, Smart walked along the north sideline and slapped fives with the patrons.
In one span of 10 or so seconds, he had served as the Celtics’ defense, offense and marketing department. You know, fan outreach. Literally.
With Brown leaving the game with a right hamstring issue at the 3:04 mark of the second inning, that put Smart into the starting lineup for the second half.
There followed a brief Milwaukee surge, but the Celts were not about to let this one get out of hand. And with Smart on the floor and his mates, as they repeatedly say, feeding off his electromagnetic field — and the crowd — the Bucks most certainly wouldn’t be able to sustain anything significant enough to get out of here with a win. (They finished with zero — count ’em, zero — fast break points.)
With 8:24 left in the game, Smart drew an offensive foul on Antetokounmpo. In that it was his fifth foul of the game and the Celtics were leading by 15 points, that meant 8:24 left in the Bucks’ season.
And when Rozier hit back-to-back treys for a 10182 margin with 5:17 left, the 76ers called their charter service and made arrangements for a Sunday flight to Boston.
Game 1 is tomorrow night.