Marcus Smart didn’t have a terrible outing in the Boston Celtics’ Game 1 victory over the Washington Wizards. He shot 2-of-5 from the floor, which is on par for him, while dishing out four assists, forcing three steals, racking up three blocks (seriously) and playing generally suffocating defense.
All told, he was a plus-12 for the afternoon, the fourth-best mark on the team.
But that didn’t stop him from having head coach Brad Stevens pull the plug on his play in the fourth quarter. From ESPN.com’s Chris Forsberg:
Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart admitted Monday that he pulled himself from the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Game 1 win over the Washington Wizards after a series of miscues that helped Washington rally.
“I just decided to take myself out. Things were going wrong and I was making a couple mistakes,” Smart said. “Everyone else was playing good, so I decided to take myself out and let those guys keep going, and really calm myself down and get ready to go back into the game to finish the game.”
This isn’t something to criticize. It’s admirable, really. Smart was instrumental in helping the Celtics climb out of a 17-point hole early on, but he was a minus-eight with two turnovers and three personal fouls through four minutes of fourth-quarter action.
His struggles, for the most part, seemed mental from afar. But it’s not like he lost his head, because he had the wherewithal to recognize he wasn’t helping, and that the Celtics would be better served closing with someone else.
Sure enough, they were able to hold serve, outscoring the Wizards by five points with Smart sitting on the bench in the fourth. Smart’s decision now goes down as both selfless and logical, but it’s also something the Celtics need to hope is an anomaly. They need his defensive energy to slow the Wizards down in this series. That was clear in the first half, just as much as Smart’s struggles were clear in the fourth quarter.
