Marcus Smart on return to Celtics lineup: ‘Something was missing in my life’
Smart missed 11 games with an ankle injury and had six steals in his return Wednesday night.
Marcus Smart didn’t waste much time getting back into the swing of things.
After missing the past 11 games with a sprained ankle, the reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year swiped six steals in his return against the Pistons on Wednesday at TD Garden.
“It feels good. Feels like something was missing in my life,” Smart said with a grin. “It felt good to be back out there with my team, coaching staff, and just the energy that we brought.”
The Celtics went 6-5 while Smart was injured.
“We missed him a lot,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We missed his joy, he brought a level of joy to the game tonight. He brought a connectivity and a trust on the defensive end because of the way he plays, it just brings energy, and then everybody plays that way.”
Smart had a sequence in the second quarter when he made a layup, grabbed a defensive rebound on the next possession, and drilled a 27-foot 3-pointer. He said that his ankle felt comfortable from the start of the game.
“I just wanted to go right into it early and try not to really think about it,” Smart said. “Try not to baby it. Just go out and play. I think when you have injuries that you come back from and you do that when you just go in play, it’s better than if you ease into it.”
While the ankle felt good, Smart admitted that he had some fear about how his ankle would react at times.
“I had a couple of possessions where I was a little scared to try because of how fast of a certain type of movement it was, but once I did it it felt fine and the confidence was there,” said Smart.
Smart finished with nine points, seven rebounds, and six assists as Boston overwhelmed a young and struggling Detroit team during a 127-109 win.
The victory sends Boston into the All-Star break with the NBA’s best record, and a solid bounce-back performance after Tuesday’s shorthanded loss to Milwaukee.
“We just wanted to come in and focus on us,” Smart said. “Whatever the outcome is, we deal with it, but we have to be able to go out there and focus on us. That’s playing hard. This time last year, exact same team, exact same game we lost and it was just tough for us because we had a whole week to let that sink in. So for us, it’s just really just being able to see we really are the best team right now … and we have to play like that at all times.”
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