An offensive breakout has been inevitable from Marcus Smart.
Including his 23-point, 8-of-13, 6-of-9 3-point performance Monday night against the Detroit Pistons, the Boston Celtics’ guard has shot 15 of 21 in his last two games.
The timing couldn’t have been worse, considering the Celtics fell for only the fourth time this season in the 118-108 loss.
“Don’t look like nothing right now. It’s all cool and all but I’d rather have the win. It would have felt good to have the win,” Smart said, while also admitting that confidence in his oft-errant shot is on the rise.
“It’s up there. Been working and talking to my teammates, the coaching staff. Just can’t get too high with the highs or too low with the lows. Continue to keep working.”
Al Horford has been one of the teammates happy to give Smart a few tips.
“All I said was for him to make sure he stays the course and makes sure he keeps doing what he does every day working on his shooting, and all that (will) pay off and not to get discouraged,” said Horford. “It’s hard, easier said than done, but he’s stayed with it and stayed professional, and we see results. He had a great shooting night.
“It’s great to see Marcus having that rhythm again. He stuck with it. He’s been working all offseason on his shot. He’s been through some struggles but he stayed with it. Against Indiana I felt like he broke through and (now) he had another great game, and defensively he was great as well.”
Kyrie Irving absorbed a shot to the face from Reggie Jackson of Detroit while coming off a pick in the first quarter, then spent the rest of the quarter rubbing the right side of his jaw. He was also checked by Celtics trainer Art Horne during a timeout but returned.
“I’m getting tired of getting hit in the freaking face. I’ll tell you that right now,” he said. “I just got cut in my lip. But it’s part of the game. Just, I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t get hit this much during my couple years in Cleveland, so maybe that’s a credit to me being in the basketball or something, I don’t know, man. But I’m getting hit in my face often. But like I said, it’s part of the game. And you’ve got to enjoy that part of it.”
Brad Stevens always knew he had a tremendous luxury in being able to attack the best guard on the other team every night with Avery Bradley.
Now he must account for Bradley whenever preparing for the Pistons.
“You’re very thankful and appreciative of what he did here, and then when you start preparing for him you realize it was a lot more fun when you weren’t preparing for him,” the Celtics’ coach said. “Good player. Deserves the applause. Avery is a really good player first and foremost. I’ve heard (Detroit Coach) Stan (Van Gundy) talk about this. He’s had a really good effect on their team. What they’re doing fits him well and it’s not a surprise he’s had such a great start to the season.”
Stevens, for instance, was able to send Bradley after Irving his first four seasons in the league. Monday night he was on the other end of that dynamic.
“He’s one of the best on-the-ball defenders in the league,” he said, “and anyone who plays against him knows they’re going to have to earn everything. Kyrie and him have played against each other for a long time. Certainly Avery is a guy who not only guarded point guards for us, he guarded 2s, he guarded 3s. He switched onto some 4s. You think about his responsibilities last year in the playoffs, going against Jimmy Butler to John Wall/(Bradley) Beal to Kyrie, that’s a heck of a challenge every night.”
Andre Drummond is a 60.5 percent foul shooter this season. Not bad for a career .381 shooter.
“I think, number one, he got himself in better shape,” said Van Gundy, “and, number two, he improved his free throw shooting, which has gone a long way to improving his confidence, and his conditioning has helped him play the game with better energy over long periods of time. Those are two really significant improvements, and then he seems to have matured.”
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