The Hawks and Celtics gave us a barn-burner on Friday night at TD Garden that came down to the final sequence. With Boston up 108-106 with under 10 seconds remaining, Atlanta had possession and unsurprisingly turned to Trae Young for the potential game-winning shot.
After getting the switch he wanted at the top of the key, Young had a chance to take Daniel Theis off the dribble, but after dancing on him at the three-point line, the sophomore point guard ended up getting his shot blocked by Theis to help seal the victory for the Celtics.
Daniel Theis said he knew Trae Young was going to go for the game-winner: "He probably would have beat me for a layup. I think he just wanted the game-winner. I just tried to take away the shot. At the end, I was right there to block it."
— Boston.com Celtics News (@BDCCeltics) January 4, 2020
But things didn’t end there. Marcus Smart came up with the loose ball and proceeded to head up court, and in the process tried to step over Young, who was still down on the ground. That, of course, is a huge sign of disrespect in NBA circles, so the two got tangled up, with Smart falling to the court and a brief scuffle ensuing that ended with double technicals and a Boston win.
"People can watch and see and judge what happened." – Trae Young on the Marcus Smart incident pic.twitter.com/0GpfAQef5e
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) January 4, 2020
Young tried to downplay it somewhat after the game, saying that we can simply watch the clip and judge for ourselves.
Trae Young, on the end-of-game stuff with Marcus Smart:
"People can watch and see and judge what happened." pic.twitter.com/EZ6ba3361M
— Bally Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnBally) January 4, 2020
Smart, for his part, had a quick comeback when asked about it afterward.
Smartt was told Trae got mad at him:
"He probably did. I got mad at him when he elbowed me in my face, too. So there we go."
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) January 4, 2020
On paper, each has a valid argument. Smart knows very well that it’s disrespectful to step over a player who is down on the court, even if he arguably had nowhere else to go, just as Young likely helped them get tangled up as he tried to do so. Regardless, the play preceding it was a clean block, and the outcome remained the same.
