Smart’s return ‘a lot closer’
Celtics rookies make hay with vet defender on mend
At this stage, with Thursday’s game against Toronto all that remains before the All-Star break, it’s a given that Marcus Smart won’t return until some point in the second half.
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
All Brad Stevens can say at the moment is that his defensive leader is “getting a lot closer.” Smart missed his 17th straight game Tuesday night against the Clippers while recovering from a torn left calf.
It helps that the team will have some unprecedented (for this season, anyway) practice time upon returning for the second half.
“We haven’t gotten into specifics about when he’ll be available or not. He’s getting a lot closer,” said Stevens. “What does that mean? I don’t know. It kind of depends, probably, on how the break goes, and how much he’s able to get in, and get in with our people. I think he’s planning on staying (in Boston) and doing that.
“And then how much you can actually do from a live standpoint to gear back up,” said the Celtics coach. “The good news is in our first few days I think we’ll practice the Wednesday before we play Brooklyn, and then we’ve got a couple of days before we play again, and we’ll probably practice all three of those days, which would be a little unusual, but that should give him even more of a chance to practice.
“And so, anytime after that, then I would assume he’d probably be more ready than not having any practice time. Now, that said, I don’t know if he’ll be that advanced by the time we get back on the practice court.”
Foul play
Fouling continues to be a major issue for the Celtics. As of Tuesday’s game against the Clippers, they had committed the fifth-most fouls in the NBA.
“Well I think No. 1 is it’s a fine line, because it’s a balance between being physical and tough, and not being unsolid. And so it is a really fine line,” said Stevens. “We don’t want to be unassertive, we don’t want to be not impactful. But we just can’t foul as much.
“And I think that there comes a time where you have to just realize like, if you’re fouling too much, it’s hard to play because you’re either putting the team into the bonus early or you’re giving them free throws once they’re there,” he said. “I thought the other night (against Washington), I didn’t know if the first quarter was going to end. And I felt so bad for everybody watching the game at home because it was just a foul-fest. But we’ve got to improve in that regard. There’s several things that we can improve on; that’s a huge one. And I think that sometimes that’s a function of guys want to make their impact on the game, guys want to come and show how aggressive they’re going to be. And then all of a sudden, you’ve got two or three fouls and you’re on edge a little bit the rest of the quarter because teams can take advantage of that.”
Young guns
It’s rare when two mid-to-late first round picks have a chance to play significant rotation minutes together for a playoff-aspiring team, but of late Aaron Nesmith (14th) and Payton Pritchard (26th) have done exactly.
As such, they get to learn together.
“Aaron’s my guy. We talk every day, so, I mean we talk about life, basketball,” said Pritchard. “We’re both going through similar experiences with the rookie year, so we bounce things off each other and we’re always here for each other.
“It’s really about how to mentally and physically take care of my body and prepare for each game,” he said. “The NBA season is a grind. It’s a lot of late nights, you fly in late, you got to play the next day, so it’s finding ways to get up and actually physically and mentally prepare for that next game, and not be kind of tired and stuff like that. So for me, that’s been the biggest adjustment. In college you play like two games a (week), now we play three or four. So, obviously that’s a big difference.”