Marcus Smart haunts Celtics with more crunch time miscues against Mavericks - MassLive.com

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DALLAS — Marcus Smart came close to playing the role these Boston Celtics need him to embrace for the better part of 48 minutes at American Airlines on Saturday night.

Smart played pesky defense and brought ball pressure against the Mavericks’ talented backcourt and held his own in switches against 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis. Offensively, he split the role as a facilitator with Dennis Schroder, attempting just four shots for his first 35 minutes of floor time while posting a team-high six assists. He set the table rather than seeking out looks for himself.

Boston’s offense started slowly on a night where Jaylen Brown was sidelined (sore hamstring) but by the time crunch time came around, nearly everyone in the Celtics closing five had an offensive flow going from Jayson Tatum (32 points) to Dennis Schroder (20 points) to Josh Richardson (13 points). Smart did his best to stay out of the way until open shots came to him, as was the case with his go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:12 remaining in regulation (setup by Jayson Tatum passing proactively out of a double team).

After a week full of adversity, the Celtics were just two minutes away from a dramatic 19-point comeback and a stellar 3-0 road trip. Instead, Smart opened the door for a Luka Doncic game-winner as time expired in the Mavericks 109-106 victory.

Smart was far from the only cause of Boston’s defeat. A lethargic offensive start for Boston forced the Celtics to play catchup for 46 minutes to dig out of a 19-point hole in the first place. Schroder also had a pair of costly turnovers in the final two minutes, including dribbling it off of Jayson Tatum’s foot in the backcourt after corralling a rebound.

Yet, the story of this loss begins and ends with Smart in the closing 30 seconds of a 104-104 game. Boston began their final possession of the game with Jayson Tatum bringing up the ball and immediately drawing a double team, leaving a wide open Marcus Smart in the far left corner of the floor.

Sharp passing by Josh Richardson and Dennis Schroder got Smart the ball against a rotating Kristaps Porzingis quickly. A simple cut to the hoop by Smart before the pass would have led to a 2-on-1 situation at the rim but Smart got the ball looking to make a play. He dribbled into Porzingis on the move in hopes of drawing the foul. There was nothing wrong with this strategy in the situation but what Smart did from here compounded a big gamble. He threw up a desperation shot after taking the contact from Porzingis in an attempt to emphasize the contact and force a whistle. The officials did not take the bait and the Mavericks easily gathered the loose ball.

Smart’s basketball savvy is usually one of his strengths but this was a bad roll of the dice. The Celtics were already in the penalty so any type of foul would have drawn free throws, making throwing up a shot a needless risk for the point guard in such a big spot. This is especially true considering Jayson Tatum was cutting to the corner as Smart drove the paint, setting up a potential wide open go-ahead 3 if Smart was looking to make the pass first after taking the contact from Porzingis. Instead, he tried counting on officials who weren’t calling much all night long in Dallas and squandered Boston’s best chance at taking back the lead.

This version of Smart offensively (trying to make too much happen late in games) has caused far more harm than good for the Celtics over the past few seasons as his role has grown. Sequences like this have become more the rule than the exception. And on the same week he publicly called out his star teammates for a lack of passing, he did not do himself any favors with his awareness on this critical possession.

Things obviously only got worse on the ensuing possession. The Celtics made a couple of nice defensive deflections to put the Mavericks in a deep hole having to go full court in just eight seconds. With a six second differential with the shot and game clock, the Celtics looked to be in a good position to not just get a stop but have enough time to go for the win themselves if they secured the rebound.

Smart obviously changed all that, giving up what looked to be an instinctual foul in the backcourt with five seconds left on the shot clock and Doncic 50 feet from the rim with 11 seconds remaining. The point guard clearly knew he had a foul to give without penalty but the foul reset the shot clock to 14, essentially eliminating any chance at Boston getting the final shot. Coming off a timeout just seconds earlier, it was an inexcusable mistake by Smart that Ime Udoka attempted to take the heat for after the game.

“There was no strategy,” Udoka said of the foul. “It was not supposed to be a foul. A few of the guys asked me coming out of timeout and I let them know, and just a mistake there. But that’s on me. I gotta let everybody know and make sure they know. Obviously, a five, six second differential, we want that last shot so I gotta communicate that to everybody so everybody knows.”

Smart was not made available to speak with the media postgame after being requested.

We still haven’t heard from the point guard since his eye-opening comments about the team’s All-Stars that clearly did not sit well with either Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown, who both had measured responses this week.

Whether or not any hurt feelings will heal between those parties remains to be seen in the coming weeks but Smart (shooting 31 percent over his first nine games and 23.8 percent in the fourth quarter) isn’t helping the on-court case to be a key part of this core with his late-game decision-making. During a week in which he called for the ball to be in his hands more, Smart showed why the Celtics should be hesitant to grant his wish moving forward, at least until he shows more progress offensively.

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