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WALTHAM, Mass. – Marcus Smart makes winning plays for the Boston Celtics on a daily basis. During Sunday’s Game 1 matchup with the Washington Wizards, the winning play he made was voluntarily removing himself from the game.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Smart rarely has lapses in his game, but he had quite a rough start to Sunday’s fourth quarter as he committed two turnovers along with a pair of fouls during a 30-second span. At the time, he noticed that his teammates were thriving while he was negatively impacting the game. After committing the second foul he saw that Isaiah Thomas was about to check in for someone else, so Smart walked over to the bench on his own accord and took a seat.
“I know I can't make those mistakes,” Smart reflected Monday afternoon, one day after Boston’s 123-113 Game 1 win. “I just wanted to take myself out, get myself together and cheer my team on. Those dudes were rolling and keeping it going. I didn't really want to mess up the groove. I just regathered myself to get ready for when Brad called me back in."
Smart admitted that the younger version of himself likely wouldn’t have taken this course of action. He would have probably continued to play through his frustration, which could potentially continue a downward spiral and hinder his team’s performance. Now, an older, more mature Smart will do otherwise.
"I've done it before," said Smart, who played a solid first three quarters, tallying six points, four assists, three rebounds, three steals and three blocks. "I know myself. It's better to just come out and get a quick breather and gather yourself than to keep getting frustrated and making the same mistakes."
Al Horford noticed that Smart was frustrated as he sat down in between Amir Johnson and James Young near the end of Boston’s bench. The veteran big man immediately got up from his seat and swapped places with Young so that he could talk Smart through the situation.
Smart relayed Horford’s message following Monday’s practice session in Waltham.
“He told me, ‘Just keep playing. We need you. Get yourself together to get ready to go back into the game,’ ” the third-year guard explained.
Smart checked back into the game 40 seconds later, but his play didn’t pick up from there. He missed a scooping layup, and then fouled Bojan Bogdanovic on a 3-point shot with 7:07 left in the game. Bogdanovic converted the four-point play, which cut Boston’s lead to four points after it had entered the fourth quarter with a 15-point lead.
Smart then removed himself from the game again – this time for good. It was a decision that he believes was the right one, despite the fact that it may have rubbed some people the wrong way.
"Some people probably think it was a little selfish of me," Smart said. "They'd think I was really mad it myself. But it really wasn't. I just felt like at that moment we were up and my plays with the two turnovers back-to-back, and the two fouls, fouling the 3-point shooter -- something we all know you're not supposed to do -- especially then he gets the and-1, that gets them rhythm and they keep going.
"I just felt like at that time for me and my team I wasn't really doing anything to help. So those guys, everybody else was in there playing. It wouldn't be fair for them and to this team for me to keep going and not give guys who've been playing well and things like that to just keep coming in and allowing myself to keep making mistakes.”
Smart provided moral support during the final seven-plus minutes from the sidelines as his teammates expanded their lead and went on to win by double-digits. Although it pained him to take himself out of the contest, he knew that he wasn’t on his A-game, so it had to be done.
It isn’t often that Smart experiences negative lapses on the court. He had one Sunday afternoon, he admitted it, and it shows how selfless he is that he was willing to remove himself from the game for the betterment of the team.