Stevens’ next task: Make Smart choice

By MARK MURPHY There may not be enough Marcus Smart to go around on this team.

“The problem with starting Marcus Smart is you can’t bring his energy off the bench,” Brad Stevens said of the Celtics guard before practice yesterday. “He’s a valuable guy in both of those areas for the same reason.”

CELTICS NOTEBOOK

As evidenced by the Celtics’ win in New Orleans Monday — indeed, one of their best end-to-end results in the first 21 games — the ability of Smart and Marcus

Morris to set an intense edge from the beginning may be exactly what this team needs.

Though the move was necessitated in part by Jaylen

Brown ’s back-related absence, the result was like the accidental marriage of chocolate and peanut butter, with added defensive intensity the balance the first unit seems to need.

Morris, who has emerged as the Celtics’ best two-way player, can keep the starters in a groove at both ends. Smart, their defensive and emotional leader, changes games without needing the ball.

But Stevens wasn’t quite ready to commit to these changes. The reserves need Smart’s spark, too.

“Obviously we’ll take all of that into account. But the way that we played the other night certainly was encouraging,” the C’s coach said when asked if he would continue to start the two Marcuses. “(Smart) does all the intangible stuff you need to have success. We’re just going to need to play better as a team, and hopefully we can build off this trip.”

Smart wasn’t pushing to remain a starter yesterday — he was simply asked about the benefit defensive intensity brings to the first unit — but he clearly believes there is merit to setting a grittier tone from the start.

“That in itself — setting the tone,” he said. “We can come out early, kind of get things going, take a lot of pressure off of guys like

Kyrie(Irving), who takes up a lot of the offensive things and then having to come down and play defense and shut down somebody like a

Jrue Holiday and their starting guards. That’s tough on anybody, especially with the way we play and especially the way Kyrie plays. Being able to take the heat off of him on both ends is something.”

Asked if this intensity was the missing ingredient in the Celtics’ lackluster start to the season, Smart said, “I don’t know. I don’t know what the missing ingredient was. We still have a lot of work to do. It’s just one game, so we can’t get too high or too low.”

That said, Smart admittedly was frustrated by his view from the bench when games often got off to such uninspired starts.

“It was tough, especially when the adrenaline is going at the highest level and you got to sit down,” he said. “The body calms down and you got to get back out there and get it back up there again while you are cold and everyone else is warm. Trying to start it that way — that’s hard for anybody to do.”

Stevens now has a difficult choice. On a team where Smart’s impact is needed in all segments of a game, where is it the most valuable?

“I mean he’s always been great with that,” said Stevens. “Again, it’s super-important to our team that he’s in the game, on what he brings to the table from an intangibles standpoint. In the past that’s really aided us at the six-minute mark of a game, or in the first quarter, but clearly it aided us the other night at the start, and so we’ll see how it goes from here.”

Brown iffy

Brown’s status for tomorrow’s game against Cleveland remains uncertain.

“Progressing, not practicing today. Don’t know anything beyond that,” said Stevens.

Making plays

Gordon Hayward’s value as a playmaker on the second unit continues to become apparent.

“We’re running a lot of calls for that group where he’s got, off of a live dribble playing in pick-and-rolls, to make the next play for somebody else,” said Stevens. “I think that’s something that we’ve looked at. That was harder to balance with the first group at the start of the year because there’s a lot of guys that are used to playing with the ball. We’re trying to figure all that out.

“He’s always been a playmaker. That’s something that’s always been something that he can do,” he said. “He just knows the game and so he makes the simple, right read over and over. A little bit like Al (Horford). I don’t think Al always gets the credit for just making the next right play. Gordon does a lot of that, especially with the ball in pickand-rolls.

“I think he’s best when he’s balancing that with better aggressiveness, but certainly we’ve run him in a lot of spots where he’s been the guy that reads, makes the decision, and then we go from there. As he gets more comfortable with everything we’re doing, we’ll see how that all plays out.”