Sam Hauser talks about how important the first ten games of the season have been for him to get comfortable with starting core.
The loose ball was tumbling towards the sideline and, as always, Marcus Smart decided to pursue it. He would gather the ball but not his balance and, as Smart is wont to do, he somehow managed to propel the ball forward as he plunged towards the front row of courtside seats.
The ball didn’t just zip past the fingertips of a Pistons defender, it caught Jayson Tatum pretty much in stride and Boston’s All-Star forward took it the rest of the way before delivering a Karl Malone-style slam as the Celtics raced away to a breezy win over the Pistons on Wednesday night at TD Garden.
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SIGN UP HERE It was quintessential Smart. The hustle, the grit, the vision. It was such a wild sequence that a referee standing on the sideline didn’t even notice that Smart seemed to step out of bounds before pushing the ball ahead.
It’s been that kind of week for Smart.
After a noticeably bumpy start to the 2022-23 season, Smart found his groove the past three games. He produced his best all-around effort of the season on Monday in Memphis and has balanced 34 assists against just four turnovers in Boston’s last three wins.
Last week wasn’t quite as memorable. Already struggling to impact winning in his usual ways, Smart had a painful missed floater in a key spot during an overtime loss to the Cavaliers. Two days later, he played a mere 1:43 in the fourth quarter of Boston’s win over the Bulls. After committing two fouls on consecutive possessions, Smart spent the majority of the fourth frame on the bench as Malcolm Brogdon and Derrick White got crunch-time nods (Smart did play the final minute as the Celtics salted away the win).
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Maybe it was a wakeup call for a player whose two-way impact is usually reflected in glossy net rating differentials. The Celtics owned a team-worst minus-6.7 net rating in Smart’s 267 minutes through the first eight games. Even wilder, the team had a +20.7 net rating in his 127 minutes on the bench.
The past three games have been a return to more familiar output. The Celtics have an offensive rating of 129.1 with Smart on the floor (second best behind only Tatum) and a +16.8 net rating overall in those three wins.
While Smart’s offensive output hasn’t been as efficient as usual, his playmaking has been exquisite. His assist-to-usage rate is a career-best 1.46, up from a career-best 1.19 last season. He’s cut his turnover percentage by three percent to start the season, a major emphasis after Boston’s turnover woes in last year’s playoffs.
Here’s the most encouraging stat for Smart: Through 11 games, 55 of his 77 assists have been to Tatum or Jaylen Brown. That accounts for two of the four highest assist combos in the league with the Smart-Brown (28) and Smart-Tatum (27) combos trailing only Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton to Buddy Hield (32).
Smart, with high standards as reigning Defensive Player of the Year, can still go up a level on that end. His steal percentage is surprisingly low. NBA tracking has opponents shooting 6.5 percent above expected output against him, though he deserves credit for spending 16.1 percent of his total defensive possessions against centers as Boston navigates an early season height deficiency without Robert Williams III.
The Smart we’ve seen the past three games is the sort of point guard that can help Boston make a charge at being a historically good offense. Despite his uneven start, the team is still on pace to produce the best offensive rating in league history.
And plays like his sideline save are a reminder of how Smart can set himself apart from other guards.
