Boston Celtics: 1 stud and 1 dud from C’s hard-fought loss to Raptors

Boston Celtics dud: Marcus Smart

So we understand that some, nay the majority of you reading this may be completely flabbergasted by the fact that we have gone about and deemed Marcus Smart Monday night’s “dud” of the game, and, frankly, we can’t blame you for having such a reaction–after all, the point guard was Boston’s leading scorer and tied for the most rebounds by game’s end.

That said, another major statistic that he led the way in was in the turnover department where he gave up a whopping seven on the night–nearly twice as many giveaways as he had assists (four)–, many of which were unforced and, honestly, just lazy blunders.

Now, no, we don’t believe that his struggles in this department should completely wipe away the plenty of other positive attributes he provided on the night (especially on the defensive end, where he’s always a true gem), but considering the fact that the C’s lost by just three yet gave up 23 points off of turnovers alone, nine of which came from primary ball-handler, Marcus Smart’s mistakes, it’s safe to say that these mishaps played a highly impactful role in the team’s ultimate demise.

Add in the fact that old bad habits seemed to pop up on the night, such as his drive to chuck up shots despite continuously being off (went 10-for-25 from the field and a putrid 2-for-11 from deep) and he was just as much of a reason for why they lost this bout against Toronto as he was influential on them having a shot at winning.

Do we think that Marcus Smart had a “bad” game? No.

In fact, all things considered, no one on the Celtics had an outing that would be worthy of being deemed as such.

Having said that, because he was utilized as the go-to guy for Boston on the night, his play held the most weight which, in turn, made his errors much more severe than they may appear when just looking at them in the box score.