Smart Oversleeps, Is Late To Sunday's Shootaround
BOSTON (CBS) -- Celtics rookie Marcus Smart picked the worst possible day to oversleep.
Smart was late to Sunday's shootaround prior to Boston's Game 4 playoff game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at TD Garden, and will have to spend some extra time on the bench because of his tardiness.
Celtics head coach Brad Stevens had already decided to start Jae Crowder over Smart for Game 4, but told reporters before Sunday's game that Smart may get an extended stay on the bench.
"Marcus may not play early with [the second unit], I don't know what we're going to do. Marcus was, and I told him I'd share this with you, Marcus was late for shootaround because he overslept," explained Stevens. "We've been there before and, as I told Marcus, I'm not worried about him at all.
"This is not a big Marcus thing," said Stevens. "And Jae Crowder would have started anyways."
The 21-year-old Smart said his alarm did not go off, and that this was his first tardiness of the season. But that doesn't make it OK to be late ahead of a playoff game.
"Coach is doing what he's supposed to do," Smart told reporters ahead of Sunday's game. "It's not acceptable, especially when you've got everybody here, and me being a rookie, for me to even play at all, it's going to be a lot. I think Coach made the right decision. It was my fault. I went and apologized to the team and the coaching staff about it. I've gotta take the consequences like a man."
Smart said he got a good night's sleep and that nerves ahead of such a big game did not play into the situation.
"That's the thing; I stayed in, I went to bed on time. I don't know. The alarm clock just didn't go off," he said. "You know, it's just one of those days where you wake up and it's not your day."
This is not the first time this season Stevens has had to deal with a player being late to a shootaround. Jared Sullinger was late to two shootarounds during the regular season, resulting in his removal from the starting lineup both times. Following his second tardiness, Sullinger sat out the entire first quarter of the game.
In the three games in the series so far, Smart has averaged 9.3 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. The defensive-minded guard has played some very good defense throughout the series, but has just one steal in the first three games.
Smart is still making the mistakes you'd expect a 21-year-old rookie to make, both on and off the court, but at least he's taking full blame for his actions. Hopefully it's something he learns from, and uses it for some fire when he does hit the court on Sunday.
