Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart is often praised for doing things that don't show up in the stat sheet. For some, that may be frustrating to hear if he's having a bad game – but it's hard to deny at times.
According to Mirin Fader of Bleacher Report, his teammate Marcus Morris has the perfect example of those things Smart does that helps the Celtics win games.
Rewind to 2017, when the Celtics beat the Houston Rockets in a close contest. In the final 7.3 seconds of the game, Smart drew two offensive fouls on superstar James Harden.
This would already an incredible feat no matter who Smart drew them on. The fact that it was superstar James Harden makes it that much more impressive though. Especially when considering many feel Harden gets too many soft “superstar” calls as it is.
Here's how Morris described it:
“Probably the craziest s–t I've ever seen,” says Celtics forward Marcus Morris. “Even without the ball, he changes the game.”
This just so happened to be a game where Smart did it all. He scored 13 points to go along with six rebounds, five assists, two steals and three blocks.
However, it's also definitive proof that not everything Smart does shows up on the box score. Sure, those go down as two turnovers for Harden, but Smart doesn't get anything for taking the charge.
The Celtics are 37-21 this season and looking to make a deep playoff run. Marcus Smart has proven himself to be an extremely valuable member of the team, even when his numbers don't show it.
If they want the deep playoff run to be a reality, Smart is the perfect type of player to have on your time.
He's always going to grind and do anything to help the team win – even if the box score doesn't show it.
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