Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart went straight to the locker room late in the second quarter of Game 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks with a shoulder injury.
Smart was unable to move his right arm as he struggled to run off the court:
This has to be Carter grabbing Smart’s right arm that caused a possible separated shoulder pic.twitter.com/2k4GphTH0f
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) May 1, 2022
Marcus Smart did something to right arm or shoulder ? pic.twitter.com/KiZzylop5y
— Lori Nickel (@LoriNickel) May 1, 2022
The good news is Smart will return in the second half. He avoided a dislocation but also picked up a quad injury:
Celtics say DPOY Marcus Smart is expected to return with a right shoulder stinger and right quad contusion.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 1, 2022




Marcus Smart returns to the floor and the crowd is LOVIN it 👏pic.twitter.com/vtqmJiz1iR
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 1, 2022
While Smart avoided the worst, this was still a bad way to end a rough half for a Celtics team looking to get a jump on the defending champions at home. The Bucks took a 56-46 lead into the break, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo's 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
Boston is struggling to get anything going inside the paint, attempting 28 3-point attempts in the first half out of 47 total field goal attempts. The Celtics did make 10 of those triples for a respectable 37.0%, but they were also just 6-of-19 on 2-pointers and committed way too many turnovers.
Smart had seven points and four assists while shooting 2-of-6 from the field and 1-of-4 from 3 in 16 first-half minutes. The Celtics need the Defensive Player of the Year to be back out there and at his best in order to take down Milwaukee. He's such an important piece on both ends of the floor, so it's such a major sigh of relief that this injury is nothing serious.
This should be an excellent series, and nobody wants to see more injuries with Khris Middleton already out.