Boston Celtics point guard Marcus Smart said after Friday’s game that his shot to the groin of San Antonio Spurs forward Matt Bonner was not intentional.
Smart fought through a screen set by Spurs center Aron Baynes during the fourth quarter of San Antonio’s 101-89 win and made contact with Bonner near the top of the key. Upon video review, Smart was hit with a flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game.
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“Like every other play, I was trying to get through a screen,” Smart told reporters after the game. “(Baynes) screened me, (Bonner) tried to clean up the screen, and I tried to fight through. He had his arms up high — locked arms — and my body, the way (Baynes) hit me threw my body back, so it forced all my momentum to come forward, and (Bonner) just happened to jump in the way as I was trying to rip through and rip up, and he got caught.”
Smart said if Bonner, a Concord, N.H., native, had believed his punch to be malicious, a more serious altercation would have ensued.
“Like I told him, I wasn’t trying to intentionally do it, because if I was, obviously he wouldn’t have come at me the way he did,” the rookie said. “It was just something that was just a freak accident — inadvertent arm that happened to connect.”
Regardless of intent, Celtics coach Brad Stevens was critical of his point guard’s actions when speaking with reporters after the game.
“I saw the play,” Stevens said. “I spoke to Marcus. For me, from my standpoint, it looks like an unacceptable play. … You can’t do that. Simple as that.”
Smart now has been ejected from two of the Celtics’ last eight games (the first came after he elbowed Elfrid Payton during a March 8 loss to the Orlando Magic). Smart’s intensity is part of what has enabled him to have success thus far in his first NBA season, but Stevens said the 21-year-old still must learn to harness his aggression, especially on off nights.
“You’ve got to be able to handle it,” the coach said. “And that’s something that hopefully he’ll mature from and grow from, but that’s something that no matter how the game’s going, no matter how frustrated you are, no matter how many times something hasn’t gone your way, you’ve got to do the right thing and make the appropriate play — and that wasn’t.”
Smart compiled 10 points (on 3-of-9 shooting) and four assists against the Spurs before being tossed.
Thumbnail photo via Soobum Im/USA TODAY Sports Images
