Victory Cigar!!! BOS 110 @ DAL 102 (16-2)

[31to6]

Booo!

Smart was on everyone and no one was scoring on him. Unlike Horford giving up several layups to Barea. Soft call on that foul, too.

But more than that it is every game he is doing this.

Pretty awesome how he used his length to contest but not foul Barnes' shot at the end of regulation, huh? Or stripped the ball out so Jaylen could recover it with 36 seconds left? Oh wait that was other guys.

It's a team game. One of our best defenders and one of the most amazing hustle guys I've ever seen is taking a **** wrecking ball to our offense for large swaths of the game (up until WINNING TIME), which is impacting said games. No reason to get all twisted up about people calling it what it is.

People cried about him all night, and yet he was a net positive and one of their better players.

Deal.

I'm glad he made huge plays down the stretch without which we wouldn't win the game.
As I and countless others pointed out, he helped shoot us out of a big lead.
Plenty to deal with on both 'sides' instead of acting like this is one of those clear-cut things, like how Jaylen Brown isn't good at basketball.

[tlee324]

Tatum, Brown, Horford, and Kyrie really played some great D down the stretch. Pretty sure Kyrie and Al had game-saving steals in the last minute of the 4th, too. None of them fouled a three-point shooter, either.

It's not all or nothing. Marcus shot the ball like sweaty gorilla taint for 95% of this game, but certainly defended well and came up with some plays.

Acting like nobody else besides Marcus played defense would be foolish, of course, as the plays you're talking about were surely made.

I really liked the way Tatum and Brown delivered on both ends of the court to add to Kyrie's greatness.

Brown's defense is starting to simmer. Kid's gonna be great on that end.

He's ahead of where I had him; I thought he'd be impacting wins and losses like this in year three. How he calmly knocked down that jumper on Dirk in the overtime was pretty special. Excellent stretch for him; hope he stays hungry and builds.

[ConstableGeneva]

Wokest of them all...

Read on Twitter

[31to6]

The new facility is mint AF and is going to get some top flight medical staff on hand. My madukes has taught a few of the lakers trainers in recent years. Their strength and conditioning staff is weak compared to most tbh, even if we hate smart

Wait, Lakers' staff is weak?
That'd be welcome news.
Maybe they can bring in BallerBrand trainers, works wonders for Lonzo?

[truth18]

Wokest of them all...

Read on Twitter

MARCUS WINS

[fallguy]

Pretty awesome how he used his length to contest but not foul Barnes' shot at the end of regulation, huh? Or stripped the ball out so Jaylen could recover it with 36 seconds left? Oh wait that was other guys.

It's a team game. One of our best defenders and one of the most amazing hustle guys I've ever seen is taking a **** wrecking ball to our offense for large swaths of the game (up until WINNING TIME), which is impacting said games. No reason to get all twisted up about people calling it what it is.

People cried about him all night, and yet he was a net positive and one of their better players.

Deal.

I'm glad he made huge plays down the stretch without which we wouldn't win the game.
As I and countless others pointed out, he helped shoot us out of a big lead.
Plenty to deal with on both 'sides' instead of acting like this is one of those clear-cut things, like how Jaylen Brown isn't good at basketball.

Was it this polarized with Rondo? I wasn't on this board back then.

[Scalamental]

I think my favorite part of the game was in OT when Tatum missed Kyrie cutting to the hoop and passed it to Marcus Smart 4 feet behind the three and Marcus made the shot.

[ThirtyFour]

People cried about him all night, and yet he was a net positive and one of their better players.

Deal.

I'm glad he made huge plays down the stretch without which we wouldn't win the game.
As I and countless others pointed out, he helped shoot us out of a big lead.
Plenty to deal with on both 'sides' instead of acting like this is one of those clear-cut things, like how Jaylen Brown isn't good at basketball.

Was it this polarized with Rondo? I wasn't on this board back then.

Oh man, between Rondo and the Tank vs Not banter a few years back, epic.

[rochrist]

Pretty awesome how he used his length to contest but not foul Barnes' shot at the end of regulation, huh? Or stripped the ball out so Jaylen could recover it with 36 seconds left? Oh wait that was other guys.

It's a team game. One of our best defenders and one of the most amazing hustle guys I've ever seen is taking a **** wrecking ball to our offense for large swaths of the game (up until WINNING TIME), which is impacting said games. No reason to get all twisted up about people calling it what it is.

People cried about him all night, and yet he was a net positive and one of their better players.

Deal.

I'm glad he made huge plays down the stretch without which we wouldn't win the game.
As I and countless others pointed out, he helped shoot us out of a big lead.
Plenty to deal with on both 'sides' instead of acting like this is one of those clear-cut things, like how Jaylen Brown isn't good at basketball.

The entire bench was 4 for 22.

While the starting backcourt was chipping in with 69 points.

[fallguy]

I'm glad he made huge plays down the stretch without which we wouldn't win the game.
As I and countless others pointed out, he helped shoot us out of a big lead.
Plenty to deal with on both 'sides' instead of acting like this is one of those clear-cut things, like how Jaylen Brown isn't good at basketball.

Was it this polarized with Rondo? I wasn't on this board back then.

Oh man, between Rondo and the Tank vs Not banter a few years back, epic.

Ah, they should have tanked. That was pretty clear.

Rondo was much more of a mixed bag.

[Captain_Caveman]

well a lot of posters are mentioning Roberson and Rodman as role models.
do your awesome stuff.
just don't take the second most shots on the team.

Who else on the bench do you want to create?

Alrighty, then.

If we've decided we can't be a pace-and-space team with the second unit, because it inevitably ends up in missed Marcus Smart or Terry Rozier 3s (or the occasional TRo drive/miss/fall-down spastic drive), I want Morris off the bench, going all iso. Or do more to feature Tatum, if he's with them. Or stagger Jaylen or Al in there, and feature them. Or get back to Marcus p-n-r with Theis, which has disappeared now that Baynes isn't, unfortunately, starting.

Or keep going with 10 fga per game for a 27% shooter instead but I don't know it doesn't seem to be working that well.

Was supposed to be Hayward.

Falls on Marcus.

[Captain_Caveman]

I'm glad he made huge plays down the stretch without which we wouldn't win the game.
As I and countless others pointed out, he helped shoot us out of a big lead.
Plenty to deal with on both 'sides' instead of acting like this is one of those clear-cut things, like how Jaylen Brown isn't good at basketball.

Was it this polarized with Rondo? I wasn't on this board back then.

Oh man, between Rondo and the Tank vs Not banter a few years back, epic.

That wasn't the debate at all.

Only people I remember who didn't hate the Rondo trade were humblebum and I, ironically.

[truth18]

People cried about him all night, and yet he was a net positive and one of their better players.

Deal.

I'm glad he made huge plays down the stretch without which we wouldn't win the game.
As I and countless others pointed out, he helped shoot us out of a big lead.
Plenty to deal with on both 'sides' instead of acting like this is one of those clear-cut things, like how Jaylen Brown isn't good at basketball.

Was it this polarized with Rondo? I wasn't on this board back then.

Rondo? Holy **** yes.

[truth18]

Was it this polarized with Rondo? I wasn't on this board back then.

Oh man, between Rondo and the Tank vs Not banter a few years back, epic.

That wasn't the debate at all.

Only people I remember who didn't hate the Rondo trade were humblebum and I, ironically.

I think he was talking about Rondo the player?

[ThirtyFour]

Was it this polarized with Rondo? I wasn't on this board back then.

Oh man, between Rondo and the Tank vs Not banter a few years back, epic.

Ah, they should have tanked. That was pretty clear.

Rondo was much more of a mixed bag.

I don't know, the number of threads about Rondo were pretty numerous and bloody, at least the Tanking got relegated to one thread eventually.

[31to6]

I actually spent a few minutes the other night with Marcus after the game and asked him about his shooting in the hangar, and all he said was "I'm confident in my shot and so is brad so I'm going to let it fly until I'm told otherwise."

Kid is a stud even if we've maligned him

Thank you! Everyone hating on Smart..it's Brad you're upset with. It's ok to admit it. You don't think Brad knows what he's doing with Smart.

Nah, going all soft-love-supportive is probably a good move by Stevens. Especially in the absence of Prince Hayward, we really need Marcus or Terry to shoot a decent percentage. There's no plan B because Larkin, amazingly, is even worse.

But fans can't rag on a guy for whom a 3-for-15 shooting night is par for the course? That's kinda what fans do. Pretty sure we're not maligning his FG% into existence.

[fallguy]

Oh man, between Rondo and the Tank vs Not banter a few years back, epic.

That wasn't the debate at all.

Only people I remember who didn't hate the Rondo trade were humblebum and I, ironically.

I think he was talking about Rondo the player?

Yeah, that's what I meant.

[pinoyceltic]

Somebody put Irving's face on Arya,

[CavemanDoctor]

Wokest of them all...

Read on Twitter

That's what those hypercritical of Smart don't understand. There is the box score, there is looking beyond the box score, and then there's Smart. His plays are often sneaky investments, the benefits of which you reap for multiple possessions in ways that are subtle. These plays often have galvanizing effects which go unseen by many fans, but are intimately felt by his teammates.

Once more fans realize that possessions aren't isolated events played in a vacuum, they'll learn to appreciate Smart more. Brad Stevens already knows this, and you all know Brad is a future-HOF coach. If you can't put your trust in Smart, at least put it in Brad.

[Captain_Caveman]

People cried about him all night, and yet he was a net positive and one of their better players.

Deal.

I'm glad he made huge plays down the stretch without which we wouldn't win the game.
As I and countless others pointed out, he helped shoot us out of a big lead.
Plenty to deal with on both 'sides' instead of acting like this is one of those clear-cut things, like how Jaylen Brown isn't good at basketball.

The entire bench was 4 for 22.

While the starting backcourt was chipping in with 69 points.

The thing is that is that we win with defense first, and Kyrie crunch time scoring second.

That part should be pretty cut and dry, IMO.