It’s probably not the best idea to trash-talk Marcus Smart from the stands, but one Memphis fan sitting courtside at FedExForum Monday night decided to egg on Boston’s starting point guard, and the entire Grizzlies team wound up paying the price.
Smart put forth his best offensive performance of the campaign, finishing one point shy of his season-high in scoring with 15 points and one assist shy of his career-high in assists with 12 dimes to help propel Boston to its third straight win by a score of 109-106.
Feeding off the crowd's energy, Smart shot off like a rocket. He helped to create each of Boston’s first 16 points of the game, scoring 10 of his own and assisting on six more.
The nine-year veteran amassed 10 points and four assists all in the first seven minutes of action, to which he credited that jeering heckler sitting in the front row.
“It kind of gave me a little bit more motivation to come out here and play the best basketball I can,” Smart told NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin after the game.
In the past two games, Smart has played some of the best basketball of his career from a playmaking standpoint. His 15-point, seven-rebound, 12-assist, two-turnover effort against the Grizzlies was preceded by a 13-point, 11-assist, one-turnover performance Saturday night in a road win over the New York Knicks.
Those 23 assists mark the most that Smart has ever had in a two-game span. He’s also the first Celtic to dish out at least 20 helpers while turning the ball over fewer than four times over a two-game stretch since Rajon Rondo in March of 2014.
“He’s reading the game really well and that’s been huge for us,” starting center Al Horford said after the game, as seen on NBC Sports Boston. “When he needs to be aggressive, he’s aggressive. When he needs to move the ball, he moves it. So finding that balance, he’s doing a good job of that.”
Despite his aggressiveness, Smart is committing very few mistakes. His career-high 6.6 assists per game have been accompanied by just 1.5 turnovers per game, which is his lowest mark in the past seven seasons. He’s one of four NBA players – along with former All-Stars Chris Paul, Fred VanVleet, and Mike Conley – who is averaging at least six assists and no more than 1.5 turnovers per game.
Smart has dished out at least five assists while committing two or fewer turnovers in a league-leading eight games this season. On only one occasion in the first 10 games did he commit more than two turnovers.
Boston’s league-leading offense seems to be operating at its best when it’s running through Smart. When he has the ball in his hands, it allows Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to play off-ball, cutting and finding open spaces to score, as they did Monday night when the wing duo combined for 60 points.
“I think he’s just fitting into his role,” Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla said of Smart. “We have three really, really good point guards (along with Malcolm Brogdon and Derrick White) and Smart spearheads that … When he takes pride in taking care of the ball, he’s a playmaker. He gets the ball where it needs to go and then makes the right decision when he gets to the rim. He’s doing a great job the last couple of games.”