Boston Celtics: 1 stud and 1 dud from underwhelming loss to Suns

Boston Celtics dud: Marcus Smart

Despite the fact that there were several Boston Celtics players on Friday who would easily have qualified for this moniker with their performances on any other given night, one player seemingly performed the most dudly of them all, and that man was undoubtedly Marcus Smart.

In all honesty, it doesn’t come down to the question of what was wrong with his game but, instead, it’s actually trying to figure out what was right with it.

Was his shot on point? No.

Was his distribution effective? No.

Was his defense effective? Outside of two steals, shockingly no.

Despite logging the third-most minutes on the night, in our humble opinion, Smart produced the worst of all those who took to the hardwood for Boston against Phoenix, as he was simply a negative contributor in virtually every aspect imaginable.

In 31 minutes played, the 27-year-old put up a whopping (and we say this in a sarcastic tone, mind you) four points, two rebounds, and zero assists while shooting at a nauseating 7.7 percent clip from the field, converting on just one of his 13 total attempts.

We all understand the highs and lows of the brand of basketball that Marcus Smart provides, the one where he can either help win you games or aid in losing you one.

Friday was simply an example of the latter, as his drive to continue chucking up shots (almost half of which were from deep) despite not being able to convert on anything was a true detriment to the team’s overall play, while his inability to get anyone else into scoring positions was just the icing on the cake.

Overall, from his misses from easy close-range looks to his lack of effectiveness in the passing game, this easily was Smart’s worst game of the year.

A player we deemed as someone who must show out moving forward, the veteran certainly did not do so against the Suns.