Steve Kerr had every reason to be upset about Steph Curry’s injury Wednesday night. He just got Draymond Green back from a lengthy absence, never mind the fact the franchise has stalled the last couple seasons thanks to Klay Thompson’s pair of devastating injuries.
That said, he was wrong about Marcus Smart’s part in Curry’s departure from Boston’s 110-88 win, which pushed the Celtics up to fourth in the Eastern Conference Standings.
“I thought Marcus dove into Steph’s knee, and that’s what I was upset about,” Kerr said after Golden State’s loss. “Lot of respect for Marcus, he’s a hell of a player. He’s a gamer, competitor. … We talked after the game. We’re good, but I thought it was a dangerous play.”
Smart did echo that he and Kerr had a much calmer conversation after Wednesday’s game than the one they had earlier in the night. He also didn’t have a problem with Golden State’s head coach speaking up mid-game. That said, Smart stands by the play he made, despite the outcome.
“At the end of that conversation (after the game), he told me ‘you’re one of the guys I wish I had on my team,’” Smart said. “Me and Steve have that relationship with USA Basketball. He knows that I’m never trying to hurt anybody. He knows that since I got in this league, I’ve been sacrificing my body for the better of my team and my teammates.
“I get it. I understand. And I hate to see it happen to anybody, especially playing and doing your job. I hope Steph’s all right. I didn’t even see him — just saw the ball, dove on the ball and tried to make a play. Unfortunately, that occurred. I’m really down right now about it.”
Not sure Smart could have sounded more remorseful about the situation — while at the same time standing his ground. At least Kerr didn’t claim Smart’s move was “not a good play for basketball" like a certain ex-Celtics point guard did with Blazers forward Nassir Little earlier in the season.
Because in the end, everyone’s taught at a young age to go all out for a loose ball. There’s never been some mass initiative to stop players from doing that because it’s unsafe or something to that effect. Some players just stop diving over time (or maybe never did it in the first place). But Smart is always going to make that play.
“We all saw the play and didn’t think it was (anything) dirty,” Jaylen Brown said. “That’s what Smart does — first to the floor. It’s basketball, and it’s unfortunate that Steph got hurt and stuff like that. It was unintentional. But that’s what Marcus does, he’s first to the floor every time. Both teams know that.”
While the Warriors are worried about their superstar moving forward, the Celtics also lost a little from Curry’s injury. As much as his absence makes the Warriors significantly easier to beat, Wednesday’s game should’ve been a great test for Boston.
Outside of Jaylen Brown being asked to do more because the Warriors were blitzing Jayson Tatum left and right, the Celtics didn’t get to take the full test. Instead, they were able to coast most of the game, outside of yet another frustrating third quarter.
“The defense, they’re trying to take me away, as well,” Brown said. “After they blitz, they don’t want me to get going, so they try to make other guys play. But (I) just keep moving, finding and making the right plays and things like that. Just keep trying to playmake and get other guys involved and continue to get good team wins.”
But because of Curry’s absence after his 14 minutes of play, the focus after the game was on Kerr and Smart’s interactions in the wake of the controversial play. Not the fact Boston continues to play well and move up the standings.
“I’ve been doing this since I first came in the league,” Smart said. “Not only that, we’ve seen guys like Draymond (Green) do that the play before with him and Grant (Williams). Him and Grant got into it, and Grant got hurt — whiplash, hurt his neck. Nobody said anything about that (as a) clean play or dirty play.
“I could (not) really care less about that because I know who I am, my teammates and my colleagues know I’m not a dirty player. They know I’m going to go out there and leave everything on the floor for my team, and I’m going to hustle. That’s just what it is. Unfortunately, when you’re doing that, things happen in basketball. In any sport or anything, injury happens. … I’m sure I’m going to get called dirty. That’s their opinion.”