CLEVELAND – If the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers were to play 50 games,
Marcus Smart would probably outplay LeBron James one time.
Game 3 on Sunday was that one time. Smart played the game of his life, Avery
Bradley hit the shot of his life, and a 111-108 victory has given Celtics life
in the Eastern Conference finals.
The Celtics were playing on the road without their All-Star point guard, just 48
hours after losing by 44 points at home. Midway through the third quarter, they
were down 21 to an opponent that was looking unstoppable, less than 19 minutes
from a 3-0 deficit that has never been overcome in NBA history.
But Celtics coach Brad Stevens liked what he saw a lot more than he did two
nights earlier.
“We were playing way better,” he said afterward. “We were getting good shots on
offense and playing with great purpose, and on defense I thought we were much
better than the score indicated.”
His team proved him right. The Celtics came all the way back, were the better
team down the stretch, and Bradley’s 3-pointer with 0.1 second left was the
difference. If it wasn’t the turning point in the series, it was at least an
exhibition in resilience and the first loss for the two teams looking to meet in
The Finals for the third straight time.
We’ll surely get that Cavs-Warriors three-match, but the Celtics are too
stubborn to concede it.
“We’ve got guys that have chips on their shoulders,” Stevens said. “A lot of
these guys have been overlooked and this is their first opportunity to really
play a meaningful role.”
Smart is at the top of that list. And with Thomas out, Sunday was his first
opportunity to start a playoff game this year. He’s always been counted on to
play hard and beat everybody else on the floor to loose balls. But, to put it
nicely, his shooting is less reliable than his hustle. There were 135 players
who attempted at least 200 3-pointers this season. Smart was the worst shooter
of the bunch, making just 28.8 percent of his 3s.
But the ball bounces a little differently every night. It bounced off the rim
five times and also off the backboard before Bradley’s game-winner fell through
the net. After shooting 31 percent from 3-point range in Games 1 and 2, the
Celtics were 18-for-40 (45 percent) from beyond the arc on Sunday.
Smart, the worst high-volume 3-point shooter in the regular season, was
7-for-10, outscoring James 27-11. The 11 were the fewest James has scored in 107
career home playoff games. The Celtics did a better job defensively, with Jae
Crowder recovering from screens to keep Kelly Olynyk from getting isolated with
the best player in the world as much as he did in Games 1 and 2.
Smart’s 27 points, meanwhile, were a career-high, regular season or playoffs.
“We can talk about his shooting all year long,” Stevens said of Smart, “but you
know when it’s in a big moment, that kid is going to rise to the occasion. He
just always has. That’s one of the reasons why if he goes through a funk at some
time in March, shoot yourself out of it, and we believe in you, and let it fly.
Because in this moment when we needed him the most, he made huge shots.”
Three of them came in a 14-3 run that quickly cut that 21-point deficit to 10.
Two more 3s came in the fourth quarter, the second a step-back in the face of
J.R. Smith that tied the game at 95 with a little less than six minutes to go.
It was a shot that a 29-percent 3-point shooter should not have in his arsenal.
But maybe Smart isn’t aware of how bad a shooter he is.
“One of the things about Marcus is he’s going to play regardless of the score,”
Stevens said. “He’s going to compete, and sometimes he’ll try to hit home runs.”
Sometimes, he succeeds. And a few possessions after Smart made a Stephen Curry
play, he made a Marcus Smart play, grabbing an offensive board and feeding Al
Horford for a 3 that gave the Celtics the lead.
Smart played all but 37 seconds of the second half and Stevens had the ball in
his hands all night. On the final possession, Smart had the attention of James,
leaving Smith and Iman Shumpert to get mixed up on an off-ball action that led
to Bradley’s game-winner.
“We were able to stick together at the end of the game and make some big plays,”
Bradley said. “I think it started with Marcus Smart, how poised he was at the
end of the game. He was able to get us in our sets and make the right play.”
The Celtics don’t have Isaiah Thomas for the rest of this series, but they do
have Marcus Smart. It’s not clear that he’s any more a point guard than he is a
shooter. But he’s a gamer and even if the Celtics can’t count on the shooting
for the rest of this series, they can count on the hustle.
“I just kept telling myself, you have nothing to lose, just go out there and
play,” he said. “You’ve been working hard throughout this whole year on your
game. Just let it flow and let it show.”
John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here and follow
him on Twitter.
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