Marcus Smart's play in Celtics win best medicine for his ailing mom


There a lot of great stories from the Celtics 108-103 win last night in Game Two versus the 76'ers, but Marcus Smart's all-around play has to be one of them.

The Celtics were down 53-33 when their surge started with Marcus drawing an offensive foul on the struggling Ben Simmons. That happened at the 3:33 mark of the second quarter and that seemed to give the team the energy it needed.

Greg Monroe made a layup. Jaylen Brown hit a three-pointer. Terry Rozier drove the lane for two points and hit two shots beyond the arc. Smart hit another 3-pointer, and Marcus Morris threw a perfect lob pass to Jaylen Brown for the dunk. The half ended with the Celtics behind by only five points with a 56-51 score.

Marcus Smart was in control of the ball, his shots and his emotions for the whole game. He played 39 minutes - scored 19 points on 6-of-13 field-goal shooting and 4-of-10 from beyond the arc. He added five rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block. But taking a charge resulting in an offensive foul on Ben Simmons was critical. Prior to that play, TNT analyst Kevin McHale had commented, "Philly had all the energy", and they did - up to that point. That changed with the Simmons charge.

According to ESPN's Chris Forsberg, Smart's mother, Camellia, had previously phoned Marcus to tell him to keep his temper in check.

"She calls me and she yells at me. She tells me to calm my 'so-and-so' down," Smart said.

Well that's what mom's are for. Facing a diagnosis of bone marrow cancer, her best medicine right now is to see her son stay on the floor and play well. He did all of that last night.


And apparently Marcus' new brace helped. Hitting 46% on field goals and 40% on threes? Looks like it worked. So did his energy. Smart gave his teammates the energy to turn the game around and the Celtics never looked back. You can bet his mom was glowing!


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Photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images