Nobody will ever question Marcus Smart's toughness. After his team's latest loss to an objectively-inferior opponent, though, the Boston Celtics guard did just that to his teammates.
“Our toughness. Our will to fight. Our will to do everything,” Smart said, per Jay King of The Athletic. “It's like we ain’t got the will to do it anymore.”
The Chicago Bulls beat the Celtics 126-116 on Saturday at the United Center, in a game not quite as close the final score suggests. The Bulls shot 53.4 percent overall, 40.0 percent from beyond the arc, and 95.2 percent from the free-throw line, good for a team-wide true shooting percentage of 64.8. Zach Lavine had 42 points on 17-of-29 shooting, and Lauri Markkanen chipped in 35 points and 15 rebounds on 20 shots.
Smart isn't the first Boston veteran to sound off after an especially fraught loss. Both Kyrie Irving and Marcus Morris have questioned the mentality of their younger teammates multiple times this season, implying they don't understand the personal sacrifice it takes to win at the NBA's highest level. The Celtics are right in the thick of Eastern Conference contention, but you wouldn't know it by the way they respond in times of adversity.
Brad Stevens, meanwhile, is trying to ease tension by placing the blame on himself. “I've got to do a lot better,” he said after the game.
Boston, 37-23, now sits at fifth in the Eastern Conference, one game behind the fourth-place Philadelphia 76ers. It seems the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors are destined for the conference's top two seeds, leaving the Celtics fighting for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
