There weren’t a lot of bright spots for the Celtics in a 121-109 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night at Barclays Center but the return of Marcus Smart to the lineup after a 18-game absence topped the list for Brad Stevens.
“Great to have him back out on the floor,” Stevens said. “The five-minute stints suck. Right? It is what it is. There’s only so many ways to manage that, to have any rhythm at all.”
Smart was limited to just 21 minutes after a six-week layoff in the wake of recovering from a torn left calf suffered on January 30th. The veteran guard was one of the best Celtics on the floor for most of those minutes, scoring 19 points off the bench while shooting a team-high nine free throws. Boston’s second unit had played well in recent weeks with Smart sidelined but the returning guard ended up being the only offensive positive coming off the bench as the rest of the Celtics’ reserves went a combined 3-of-12 from the field, mustering just 10 points while being soundly outplayed by the Nets backups.
Stevens did his best to manage Smart’s minutes around Boston’s lineup needs but it ultimately wasn’t enough after Boston’s defense struggled to contain Nets shooters for much of the second half. Despite those team woes, Stevens was encouraged by what his longest-tenured guard could do already on the floor after such a long layoff.
“You want him to be able to end the game and use his versatility defensively,” Stevens said. “I know he’ll be excited when that 20 minute deal is over. But I thought he looked good, I thought he did a lot of good things, and he’ll only get better as he gets more used to game action.”
The likely plan for Smart will be returning to the starting five once he gets back to full strength but for now the 27-year-old was just happy to get his feet wet again.
“It felt good to be back out there with those guys,” he said. “Obviously first game back, a little jitters. But it’s like riding a bike. I just come back and do what I do: try to help my team win games.
“Obviously we would have loved to have this one. We were right there. We played a really good team. And we’ve got some things we need to clean up, but it was very promising. I’m proud of the way we played. I’m proud of the effort. And the shots fell for them tonight, shots fell for us here and there. Just gotta finish the game out, but like I said I’m proud of the way we played tonight.”
Smart will benefit from two rare consecutive days off now to recover before the team travels to Texas for a matchup against the reeling Houston Rockets on Sunday night. However, don’t expect Smart or the coaching staff to ramp things up for himself so quickly when it comes to adding to his minutes load.
“I think everybody, from Brad, to me, to the training staff, we all understand it and we accept it,” Smart said of the minutes limit. “The last thing for us is to have me out there re-injuring or something else happening and not having me in the playoffs. Obviously I’m happy to be out there and being out there with my team is definitely something we want and need, but we want to be smart about it, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re taking it slow and just easing my way back into it. I don’t think I’ll be on minutes restrictions for long, but as of right now, we’re going to take it and keep going with it.”
With Boston’s defense continuing to reel after allowing 95 points in the final three quarters of Thursday’s loss to the Nets, the key now will be Smart trying to impose his defensive mindset to improve the consistency of a Celtics defense that has dropped to 19th in the NBA following Thursday’s loss.
“He’s our defensive leader,” Daniel Theis said. “You saw it today, he takes matchups personally. Like he wanted to get a stop, like when he guarded Kyrie, he wanted to guard him. He wanted to make it tough for him, make him miss a shot and just be there and lead the way for our whole team. If he needs to run our defense, he is pulling everybody with him. And that’s what we need from him on the defensive end.”
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