Marcus Smart gets final word in LaMelo Ball matchup: ‘He gets House of Highlights but we got the win’

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2021/10/marcus-smart-gets-final-word-in-lamelo-ball-matchup-he-gets-house-of-highlights-but-we-got-the-win.html



Marcus Smart gets final word in LaMelo Ball matchup: ‘He gets House of Highlights but we got the win’



Updated: Oct. 26, 2021, 9:15 a.m. | Published: Oct. 26, 2021, 9:15 a.m.



Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (2) shoots the ball while guarded by Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart (36) during an NBA basketball game in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)AP



By Brian Robb | brobb@masslive.com



CHARLOTTE -- The Charlotte Hornets entered Monday’s game against the Boston Celtics riding the best start in franchise history. LaMelo Ball was at the forefront of that success, averaging 22.8 points and 6.8 assists per game and that hot start to the season continued against Boston early on at the Spectrum Center.

Ball torched the visitors for 12 points and six assists in the first half alone, taking advantage of Boston’s lackluster defense with 3s in transition. The steady play earned Ball some praise from one of the NBA’s best backcourt defenders after the matchup.


“He’s a good player, he’s a really good player,” Marcus Smart said of Ball. “He has the freedom that a lot of players don’t have early on in their career and that’s to just come in and do whatever you want. When you have freedom like that and you are a good player, that makes you look even better. You tip your hat off to them. He’s only going to continue to get better and help that team.”


Smart was switched onto Ball for much of the second half of the Monday’s matchup in an attempt to slow him down and Ball made a number of stepback jumpers over him in transition, earning Ball plenty of praise from the Spectrum Center crowd. However, Smart ultimately came out on top in the matchup, helping limit Ball to 3-of-12 shooting in the second half before fouling him out by forcing an offensive foul in the closing minutes of overtime. Ball finished with 25 points but needed 19 shot attempts to hit that mark.

After the overtime win, Smart reacted to Ball’s shotmaking that left him looking silly in a couple of sequences as a defender..

“It happens,” Smart declared. “Like I said, it happens. I’m a defender. Just like a shot blocker, you are going to get dunked on a few times. All he did was make a good move and stopped. I was out there struggling my damn stuff.

“As we know, the player I am, I’m going to make up for it and I did it twice. We came out with the win and that’s all that matters. He’s going to get all the overtime House of Highlights, Sportscenter and all that but we got the win and that’s all that matters.”


That mentality was echoed by Ime Udoka after the game who went out of his way to praise his starting point guard after a 3-of-12 shooting night.

“That’s what he’s always been about,” Udoka said of Smart. “I I said it to the group in there, I said I don’t care about the 41 and the 30 from you guys, Marcus had the play of the game taking that last shot away from them. He does all the little things, switching onto LaMelo and guarding some of those guys well. He does so much that doesn’t show up in the box score, but we know the toughness and heart and soul of our team comes from him.”

Udoka also provided some bulletin board material heading into the next Celtics-Hornets matchup by acknowledging the team was targeting Ball on the defensive end.

“We wanted to pick on Ball late in the game there, and if it wasn’t Ball, we wanted to put Hayward in it,” Udoka said. “So those are the guys we were picking on. We put a lot of small pick-and-rolls. It was either Dennis or Marcus setting it. And we wanted to try to take advantage of Ball. Our plan was to pick on Ball, use our size and hopefully if they helped, then we could kick the ball and get some open shots.”


The Celtics and Hornets face off next in Boston on January 19th in a nationally televised matchup.


Bob
MY NOTE: "helping limit Ball to 3-of-12 shooting in the second half before fouling him out by forcing an offensive foul in the closing minutes of overtime. Ball finished with 25 points but needed 19 shot attempts to hit that mark.". This is one of the reasons why I love Marcus Smart. I will live with his shooting as long as he doesn't take too many but he's one of the best back court defensive stoppers the Celtics has had since Dennis Johnson.

You can live without arms, legs, a kidney. You cannot live without a heart. He is the living, beating heart of this team and has been since he was drafted.


.

The last two games Smart and Schroder have been in the starting backcourt.

Schroder is mostly the PG in the lineup and Smart is playing off the ball.  This is not what I expected.  

Smart continues to make big time winning plays.  He also continues to chuck shots up from behind the arc that do not go in the basket.  So far he is putting up a career high 7.3 3PA per game.

How do you reconcile these two aspects of his game?  Will he be reeled in?  His best year shooting the 3 ball was when he took 4.3 per game and shot a very respectable 36.4%.  that now seems like a long time ago in a galaxy far away (2018-19)  
I am not convinced that it is okay for him to continue the trend of shooting an ever increasing number of 3 point shots that result in a very inefficient scoring.  To me these are virtually empty possessions.  

I would very much appreciate it if Marcus reduced his number of 3 point shoots and put more effort into getting in the paint and to the rim to make shots or at least to pick up fouls

So far Marcus is 1-1 from the line.  ONE

I say keep defending at a high level Marcus but try to find other ways to score since you are a horrible 3 point shooter.

I agree with Udoka but to say he doesn’t care about the 40 and the 31 is something better left unsaid.
Smart busted his ass on defense but Brown and Tatum also busted their ass getting those 71 combined points.
Coach probably doesn’t mean it the way it sounds but in my opinion its better left unsaid.

There were also switches where Jaylen ended up on Limelo and he didn’t go near the basket as he didn’t want to challenge Jaylen’s length and tenacity. Udoka how about you figure how to run an offense that doesn’t allow an icy cold player to go 1-9 from 3. Smart is so strong defensively, I don’t understand why he’s been such a weak finisher. Guess his shooting can only go up right, it can’t get any worse?

BobH,

I know you don't make (or take) that comparison to DJ lightly. But you are absolutely correct. It's been quite a while.

It brings back the classic BOS vs. DET in 1987, Bird steals the ball and throws it to no one else but DJ for the lay-in. If I remember correctly, that all the games in that series went right down the home court line with BOS winning G7 in Boston. Boston took a 3-2 lead with that game, lost in DET for G6. (I can still here Johnny Most calling that play!) We came up short against the Lakers in the Finals and LA won the rubber match and took a 2-1 series lead vs. BOS for the 80's.

DJ was an amazing player. He was Larry Bird's most favorite player which says it all.

db