Marcus Smart is a peculiar guy. He has many strengths, some flaws, a strong personality and an idiosyncratic attitude when it comes to the Celtics. He is a player who has had a hard time finding his definitive place in a specific game scheme, who has evolved in attack, has improved in passing and has continued to be the fundamental pillar of a defense that is already historic. He also continues to be a base that generates doubts in the shot and has difficulties managing tight endings, an asterisk that has decreased and in which he seems better than yesterday and, if his evolution continues, worse than tomorrow. He is, apart from all that, a guy who has walked that fine line that separates good from evil, ambiguous, ambivalent, contradictory.. That sometimes generates mixed feelings. But what is incontestable, beyond everything that has been said, is that Marcus Smart it is. It is the soul of these Celtics, the vein, the base and the base that supports, that ties, that demarches, that dazzles. A man who does not generate doubts within Boston, who feeds on them outside and whose presence ensures that the team’s competitiveness and the charisma of a personality that is that of the Celtics, but it is also his. A player who is not there, a player who, once again, it is.
That Smart was on the bench in the first game talking in the timeouts and applauding his teammates was not enough for the Celtics, who counted on his return for the second round. Also with that of Al Horford, a man who has drunk from the fountain of eternal youth. And that was enough for the Celtics, who settled the game in the first half, withstood the Heat’s attempt at rebellion in the third quarter, and sat down their best players with 6 minutes to go when Erik Spoelstra had done the same. a while before in a last period that was worth absolutely nothing and in which everyone was already thinking about the trip to Boston. Once again, deservedly so, the team that Ime Udoka manages so well (excellent with timeouts and adjustments in the third quarter) is the clear favorite for the title, the long-awaited ring that the franchise has not won since 2008. And again, they react to a loss with a win, demonstrate an exercise in character and extreme resilience, and avoid two straight playoff losses.. Something that has not happened to them, by the way, since March 30, when they lost precisely against the Heat after doing it before with the Raptors. unbeatable.