There are untold reasons for the Celtics dive into oblivion during the Milwaukee series (and prior). But we may be missing one. My original argument on November 20, 2018 with the Celtics in 7th place in the East with a 9-8 record, was to start Marcus Smart to inject much-needed energy into the team right out of the gate. Well, six days later Marcus was a starter, and it worked nicely with a win over the Pelicans.
Marcus Smart has directly or indirectly caused like all of the Pels’ turnovers and mistakes
The bonus of Smart-as-starter turned out to be the synergy that emerged between Kyrie Irving and Marcus.