Boston Celtics: 1 stud and 1 dud from C’s EPIC Game One win over Nets
By Mark Nilon
Boston Celtics Game One stud: Marcus Smart
For a large chunk of his tenure with the Boston Celtics, many have been rather vocal about their distrust in Marcus Smart serving as a full-time starting point guard for this championship-hopeful squad.
From arguments revolving around questionable decision-making to his overzealous desire to chuck up shots regardless of his conversion rates, there were a plethora of people who just simply weren’t convinced that the 28-year-old had what it took to help lead this team to the promised land whilst manning the one spot.
Then, 2021-22 hit, and, with his stellar play and production, the veteran went about and put to rest these concerns for a large portion of the naysayers.
Sunday, he simply continued to strengthen the case that you can contend for a title with him serving as your starting guard.
Logging 36 minutes, Smart finished the night with a stellar overall stat-line of 20 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and two steals while shooting 47 percent from the floor and 44 percent from deep.
His distribution and sound decision-making wound up playing major roles in this contest for Boston and, frankly, without said decision-making we may not have gotten to witness the first buzzer-beater of Jayson Tatum’s career.
To take things a step further, we may not have even witnessed a Boston victory.
Receiving the ball with less than four seconds left on the clock on a kick-out by Jaylen Brown, in years past we easily could have just gone on to watch the guard heave a desperation shot from beyond the arc in double coverage, and simply pray that the ball drops in.
Instead, Marcus Smart went on to pump-fake the likes of both Bruce Brown and Nic Claxton into the air, where he would then quickly put the ball on the floor and drive to the hoop only to zip a pass to Tatum at the rim where he’d go on to put in the uncontested layup.
Bam, Celtics win!
The All-Star wing may be viewed as the savior of Boston’s Game One win against Brooklyn with this tremendous play, but one mustn’t breeze by the fact that, without Smart’s decision to wisely utilize the remaining time he had on the clock, this would never have been possible.
Because of this, coupled with his stellar play all around, we at the Houdini believe he deserves stud of the game.