WALTHAM — The Celtics-Wizards rivalry heated up this season with flagrant fouls, technical fouls, nose pokes and message-sending pregame attire.
Now the C’s expect that bad blood to continue in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals, which start today at the Garden.
“If you’re not going to go out there and do it to the best, if you’re not going to be passionate, why you doing it?” C’s guard Marcus Smart asked yesterday after a walkthrough.
Smart was in the thick of things during the C’s four-game, regular-season series split with Washington. He was the victim of a John Wall flagrant foul in the C’s 118-93 loss Nov.