Smart Plays: Celtics beat Rockets with insane comeback in final seconds in controversial two-ref game

http://celticswire.usatoday.com/2017/12/29/smart-plays-celtics-beat-rockets-with-insane-comeback-in-final-seconds-in-controversial-two-ref-game/




Smart Plays: Celtics beat Rockets with insane comeback in final seconds in controversial  two-ref game












By: Jared Weiss | 13 hours ago 







Beethoven had his music. Monet had his brush strokes. Smart has his…winning plays.


Was it a flop? Was it a foul? Was it something mystical in between?


Whatever it was that Marcus Smart did for the Celtics Thursday night, it got them an absolutely impossible win. As former teammate Isaiah Thomas described it, “Smart doing smart things lol…”


Flopping is one of the most evil yet necessary tools in the arsenal. When used right, it earns the rightful call from an egregious action that would otherwise go unpunished. Marcus Smart knows this. 
He is not a cheater. He is not sinister. He is a basketball lunatic seeking justice in this world.


He’s not the hero the Celtics want. He’s the hero they need.



“Man that just shows how crazy he is,” Terry Rozier said. “He’s special, man, not the first time I’ve seen it. He’s just great. You need a crazy guy like that.”


Sometimes you need Smart to execute a perfect pass to find Jayson Tatum streaking to the hoop, making it a 98-97 game. Sometimes you need the troll God to come out from under his bridge to destroy the enemy from within.


[ltr]
https://streamable.com/nkxul
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CELTICS NATION @CelticsNation5

[ltr]Marcus Smart.... We dont appreciate you enough an I apologize [/ltr]




7:43 PM - Dec 28, 2017

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This is the stuff of legend. Marcus Smart got the assist to make a win possible and then forced two turnovers on defense without the ball ever touching the floor.


The first play could be categorized as a flop, but that is not mutually exclusive from an offensive foul. Smart wanted to make sure he got under Harden’s skin before the inbound, trying to generate a tension that would force Harden to give him a clear shove and sell the contact. So Smart starts by hugging Harden and getting him riled up.


When Harden gives him a push, Smart locks under Harden’s arm to force a big push off from the Beard. When it comes, Smart throws his head back, slips out a foot to sell it and goes down hard. Perfect flop. Legit foul. Winning effing play.


“We were just trying to deny him the ball, and we were just trying to make it real uncomfortable for him the whole night,” Smart said of the play. “He lost it and gave me a little nudge, and it was kind of right in front of the official, and he called it.”


The second foul is essentially the same thing. Smart knows he can grapple in the final minute. So his goal is to say so tight into his opponent’s airspace and hold his ground so hard, that they have to push off to get any separation and he knows exactly when to go down.


[ltr]
https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/946586563361812480[/ltr]

Rob Perez

@World_Wide_Wob

[ltr]TROLL GOD MARCUS SMART 

Smart draws back-to-back offensive fouls on James Harden in final seconds, Horford drains game-winning bucket

Celtics erase 26-point deficit, W[/ltr]




7:39 PM - Dec 28, 2017

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Smart does not go down on the initial hit here. He knows it’s too obvious and he won’t get the call. His brilliance is in his patience, waiting for Harden to commit all his momentum into his territory. Smart puts his hands up and keeps trying to hold his ground until Harden steps under him. Then he takes the hit and goes down.


Defenders are technically supposed to keep moving so they don’t impede the path of the offensive player. But Smart on this play had given Harden enough leeway on the first couple steps to rightfully stand his ground and take the hit.


“He was getting ready to take the ball out, he’s bumping me chest to chest, I’m just standing the spot getting ready to play defense again,” Smart said. “So my hands are up and then once again he does the same thing. He loses it again and the ref is right there again and called it. And that was pretty much the game.”


It’s maybe a bit of a sell. It’s definitely an offensive foul. It doesn’t matter either way. It was most certainly the definition of “Winning play.”


“It looked to me like he held his ground, and then obviously we were playing pretty well up to that point scoring, and cutting it to one, cutting it to one, playing the foul game,” Brad Stevens said. “They had hit their free throws and so obviously getting the ball back without them shooting free throws was a big deal.”


Smart took advantage of there being just two officials tonight when Marc Lindsay missed the game with a sore back and the league had no alternate available. As Kyrie Irving told his guys before the start of the game to use it to their advantage. The officiating turned out to be a trainwreck that affected both teams. But Harden was pissed off after his team — more particularly him — blew a win directly because of the officials’ calls.


“First of all, how do you only have two officials on a national TV game?” Harden said. “That is the first question. A lot of grabbing, a lot of holding. How else am I supposed to get open? A guy has two arms wrapped around my whole body.”


Kyrie Irving just saw his teammate doing what he’s done his whole life: Making guys uncomfortable.


“Marcus has been drawing charges since he was in high school and college, and really getting up under guys, and making them uncomfortable, and especially in a pressure situation like that, he made the right decision,” Irving said. “And he usually does it at the ending stretch, which is why he’s in. So defensively, we can always go to him to be sure he’s making the right plays.”


Al Horford saw Smart as the source of inspiration for Boston to race back and claim victory. Their 26-point comeback was the biggest in the NBA this season and it took a “banged up” Smart, as Horford revealed, to pull it off.


“Smart’s pretty banged up and he just kind of found a way to get out of his comfort zone and play as hard as he could,” Horford said. “That fueled the rest of our team.”


Smart does not care about how pretty wins look. He cares that they are wins. He is a professional at being a pain in the ass.


“I guess you could say that, my mom might say that,” Smart said. “But nah, I play defense with passion and defense wins games. And that was proven tonight.”




bob





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