BOSTON — Mookie Betts settled into a courtside seat Tuesday night, but for a guy preparing to play a key role in the postseason run for the Red Sox, maybe someone should have protected him.
The Celtics’ 102-95 exhibition loss to Cleveland was far worse than the score indicated.
Allow an angry Brad Stevens to explain.
“Wide-open layups, wide-open 3s, wide-open shots, fouls,” the Celtics coach said of the way his team defended the Cavaliers. “You know, directing the ball, being able to get into the body of the ball-handler without fouling, being able to pull over and pick and roll and be in the right spot. Pretty much everything. I mean, we’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s pretty clear.”
Marcus Smart, one of the few Celtics who was playing with passion, put it another way.
“We’ve been lackadaisical, we have to play harder, and (Stevens) just felt the last couple of games we haven’t held up, and he was fed up with us,” the guard said. “We have to get back to being us. We’re not doing things in the defensive end. We were being lazy. Guys were switching onto guys instead of guarding their own guy, and we want somebody to do the job for us, and that’s just not us, and rightfully so. Brad wasn’t happy, and he let it be known.”
Smart won’t be heard saying this during the regular season, but he believes Tuesday night’s spanking will pay a benefit.
“It’s great for us, brings us back, humbles us,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of attention over the last couple months of how good this team can be, but we can’t turn it on and off. It’s good to have these moments, then we have to move on.”
MAVERICKS: New Dallas center DeAndre Jordan missed the team’s trip to China for two exhibition games because of unspecified personal reasons.
Harrison Barnes also stayed behind when the team left for China after injuring a hamstring in practice.
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