Before the game, I was expecting a duel. Ja Morant vs. Marcus Smart. The young upstart MVP candidate who seemingly defies gravity nightly against the grifter, the counterpuncher, the bulldog on D.
But in the end, it wasn’t exactly iron sharpening iron. With all the defensive switching that the Celtics do, Smart rarely went head-to-head with Morant. There weren’t many punches thrown between the two, but a couple of plays landed for sure. Late in the second quarter as Memphis chipped away at the Celtics’ lead, Smart fumbled away the ball (1 of 11 disastrous first half turnovers) against a Morant-Anderson double team and then Morant happened:
It’s the kind of play that’s absolutely captivated the NBA over the last few weeks.