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Marcus Smart's Hand Injury Was Nearly Season-Ending

BOSTON (CBS) -- When news broke that Marcus Smart injured his hand by punching a picture frame in his hotel room, many people criticized the 23-year-old for being immature.

As it turns out, he's also pretty lucky.

Smart spoke to the media on Wednesday and explained that he was incredibly fortunate to have avoided an injury that would have required season-ending surgery.

"They pulled a glass piece out of the palm of my hand ... and they said there was two tendons that ran along the pinky area, the main tendons. And really, the glass was sitting right in between them," Smart said. "[They said] you should go play the lotto or something, you missed your tendons. They don't understand it, they don't really see how [it happened]. So I thank God for that every day. It could have been worse, and I'm glad it's not."

Had the tendons been damaged, Smart said he "probably would have had to have surgery" and be out for the rest of the year.

While he felt lucky to have avoided serious injury, it still wasn't easy watching from the sidelines as his team go 6-5 during his absence. That included a three-game home losing streak heading into the all-star break.

"I was devastated, just for the fact that I couldn't do anything to get out there and help, and the fact that we know what we're supposed to do," Smart said. "We know how to play basketball."

Smart said his emotions ranged from sadness, to anger, to frustration during his time off the court. But overall, he's thankful that his mistake in his hotel room didn't end his season.

"I'm a competitor," he said. "I think in this league you have to have the mentality when you sit on the bench -- it's one thing if you're sitting on the bench for something that happened that you couldn't control, but it's another to sit on there for something you can control. I felt like I let my team down. But I got a second chance to come back and redeem myself."

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