Marcus Smart Thinks The Celtics Are ‘Playing Like Punks’ This Season


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By any measure, the Boston Celtics have underachieved at the start of the 2018-19 season. While the team has appeared in only 18 games (promoting small sample size caveats), very little has gone right for Brad Stevens and company, including an active three-game losing streak as Thanksgiving arrived.

The Celtics continue to put a strong defensive product on the floor (at least for the full season to this point) but Boston stunningly boasts a bottom-five offense in the NBA. After the team’s most recent loss, Marcus Smart expressed real frustration in speaking with Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, to the point where he indicated his viewpoint that he believes the Celtics are “playing like punks.”

“We’ve got to stop sugarcoating things,” Smart said. “That’s the problem. We’ve got to stop sugarcoating it. We’ve just got to call it what it is. We’re playing like punks; that’s just what it is.”

“It’s the same old song,” Smart added. “You know, it gets annoying. I don’t even know what to say at this point. You’ve already done heard it. I’m tired of talking about it. I don’t know.”

Obviously, there is some part of this that could be frustration boiling over after an ugly defeat at the hands of an inferior opponent. With that said, Smart was a part of Boston’s franchise before this season and, as something of an emotional leader, particularly on the defensive end, he brings a ton of cache to the table when speaking in this kind of way.

Within the confines of the same interview, Smart said that “teams are going to continue to whup” the Celtics if Boston’s effort does not improve and, flatly, he indicated that the struggles come from the team “not playing hard.” Of course, it is worth pointing out that defense, rather than offense, has been the bigger issue, and execution and shot-making isn’t always tied to effort. Still, Smart is likely correct in that the Celtics haven’t been operating at maximum capacity.

Boston has the opportunity to “get right” against a struggling team on Friday night when the Celtics take on the Hawks and, simply put, that kind of match-up can cure a lot of ills. What it won’t fix, though, is some of the offensive issues plaguing the Celtics at the moment and it will be interesting to see just how long a team many picked to reach the NBA Finals continues to struggle on this level.

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