Boston Celtics: 2 unsung studs from C’s series-clinching win over Nets

Boston Celtics unsung stud No. 2) Marcus Smart

As we’ve been saying for months now, Marcus Smart is one of the main reasons for the second-half turnaround for this Boston Celtics team and his tremendous production has found itself carrying over into this year’s playoffs which, as a result, has helped keep their winning ways alive.

The league’s Defensive Player of the Year was pegged as being a player who will make or break the team’s postseason push and, thanks to his sensational play in Game 4, the C’s are advancing on to the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Logging the second-most minutes on the team with 36:47, Smart went on to have easily his best game of the series, finishing off the night with 20 points, 11 assists (five coming in the first quarter alone), and five rebounds on 43.8 percent shooting from the floor and 42.9 percent shooting from deep whilst also finishing with the second-best plus-minus mark on the C’s with +9.

The main objective for a point guard is to serve as a quarterback of the court for their respective ball club, and that’s exactly what the veteran was during this fourth outing for the shamrocks, as he was constantly getting his teammates involved while also simply making the right reads and plays to, ultimately, help aid in the win.

Up until this season, Marcus Smart has constantly found himself serving as either the understudy for or the two guard alongside a supposed franchise floor general and, because of this, coming into 2021-22 many were skeptical about the 28-year-old’s abilities to lead the charge as the primary one.

To this point, the eighth-year pro has proven time and time again that, not only can he run the show effectively, but this team has a real shot of winning it all with him manning the one and, in this series-clinching contest, perhaps it’s a bit poetic that his stupendous showing wound up coming against a player in Kyrie Irving that, at one point in time, was one of those said supposed franchise floor generals that were keeping him from taking hold of the reins.