Smart’s attitude backs Celts fire
Tyronn Lue’s compliments about the Celtics following Cleveland’s Game 2 loss on Tuesday night, that his Cavaliers needed more of the younger C’s toughness and that there was clearly an intensity gap between the teams, most reflected on a truly unique competitor in today’s NBA.
“That’s me,” said Marcus Smart. “That’s how I was raised. I’m the youngest of four boys. My whole life I had to fight. I had to get down and do things in order to secure my spot in the household. So coming on to the court it’s nothing different. We’re the underdogs. We’re coming in, Cleveland is picked to beat us. We’ve got to come and give energy, extraordinary energy all the time, and I just try to be that spark plug.”
The Celtics guard’s confrontation with J.R. Smith in the fourth quarter after the latter admittedly earned a Flagrant 1 foul by shoving a defenseless Al Horford over the baseline, points to something more. Smart is the senior Celtic in continuous service, and was the only one present in 2015 when Smith delivered a similar cheap shot, a backhanded fist to the face of Jae Crowder while boxing out for a rebound in the final game of a Cavaliers sweep at the Garden.
Smith earned a Flagrant 2 foul and was ejected, later claiming his swipe was unintentional. There was no such disclaimer after shoving Horford.
“That was a good call. I blatantly pushed him. It wasn’t like I was trying to low bridge him or something,” said Smith. “I was just trying to make sure he didn’t get it. It was a good hard foul. I can understand why they gave me a flagrant.”
But Smart was clearly thinking back to the Crowder incident when he said, “That’s not the first time J.R. has done some dirty stuff, especially playing against us. He’s known for it, especially playing against us. We know that. So you know, it’s like a bully, you keep letting a bully keep picking on you, he’s going to pick on you until you finally stand up, and that’s what I tried to do. One of my guys was down, and I took offense to it.
“Oh, man, we’re out there to play basketball,” said Smart. “You know, and I just looked at it, Al is a defenseless person. He’s in the air. He can’t control how his body goes, and he’s not even looking, and you go and take two hands to the back, that’s a dirty shot. You just can’t allow that to keep happening.”
For a player obsessed with the little things, the role of policeman ranks high in Smart’s varied job description, which during the Celtics’ Game 2 win included the usual smor- gasbord of contributions, like 11 points, nine assists, five rebounds, four steals, a plus-21 rating and a technical foul for his conflagration with Smith, who also earned a T.
“That’s what Smart does, man. Smart, he was born with his hands dirty,” said Jaylen Brown. “I’m just happy he’s on our side.”
Celtics notes
The Celtics are now 9-0 at home in the playoffs, and have only done that five other times in franchise history — 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 2008. They reached the NBA Finals in each of those years, losing only once, in 1985 to the Lakers.
Yes, the power of the crowd remains extremely strong for this group.
“It’s special. Can’t say enough about our home crowd,” said guard Terry Rozier. “They got us going every time we play here, not just the postseason. We just got to steal one (in Game 3 in Cleveland).”
A reminder, though: The Celtics are 1-4 on the road in this postseason.