Boston Celtics: 1 stud and 1 dud from C’s statement win over Lakers

Boston Celtics stud: Marcus Smart

As is well known by the vast majority of Boston Celtics fans, Marcus Smart is a player that, depending on the night, you either love him or, to put it nicely, want him to take a seat.

His performance Friday night certainly gave spectators the former form of emotion, as he was absolutely superb on both ends of the ball — frankly, we couldn’t have asked for much more out of him.

Logging 30 minutes on the night, the eighth-year baller boasted an impressive all-around stat-line of 22 points (second-best mark on the team), eight rebounds (three of which being offensive), six assists, and a steal on a highly efficient 69 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting from deep.

A night such as this is a tremendous reminder of what Smart is capable of when at his best, for he was doing everything from knocking down open shots and creating for himself with his crafty dribbling maneuvers to drawing doubles on drives and kicking it to the open man (that alley-oop lob to Horford in the third, anyone?!) to simply laying it all on the line when on defense.

If he can produce at or similar to this level at a far more consistent basis, assuming the rest of the C’s core can remain healthy moving forward, this team will without a doubt start to skyrocket up the standings.

Though Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown may be the best players on this roster, Marcus Smart is arguably this team’s biggest X-factor and, when he plays like he did Friday, Boston’s a hard squad to beat.