Marcus Smart was ejected in the Boston Celtics' Wednesday night loss to the Philadelphia 76ers after he angrily shoved the Sixers' star center, Joel Embiid, in the back.
On Friday, Smart addressed the incident during the team's media availability in Charlotte — and he wasn't exactly apologetic.
"I thought it was just really obvious that it was an illegal screen that should’ve been called and I thought it should’ve been cleaned up," Smart told reporters. "You know, if you called that screen or you make the right call, you just don’t let an offensive player do what he wanted. Allow the defender to protect himself and protect his space as well. None of that ever happened.
"So, with the illegal elbow, I don’t know if you guys watched this but you can even see Joel lean in with the elbow. You can see Joel walk off like he didn’t even do anything. I don’t know what the call was. So, after that, I waited for the call, it didn’t happen, and I just got up and pushed him."
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The Celtics were up 11 when Smart exited the game, but they ultimately ended up losing by three points. Brad Stevens expressed his disappointment in Smart's decision after the game, specifically citing Aron Baynes' injury as part of the reason that the team really needed Smart on the floor.
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Smart ended up being issued a $50,000 fine from the NBA.
Despite the end result of everything, Smart said that he wouldn't change anything about what he did.
"I’ll do it over again. I’m going to protect myself at all times, especially if I don’t feel like I’m being protected out there like everybody else is. If you don’t want to clean it up, I’ll clean it up myself."
Smart will return to the Celtics' lineup on Saturday against the Hornets. He'll help out the team, as they have already declared three rotation players out for the game in Charlotte.
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