Marcus Smart Sent to Locker Room Before End of Game

Celtics guard Marcus Smart had a brief-but-animated flare-up with assistant coaches on the Boston bench late in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s 123-108 loss to the Wizards and was sent to the locker room before the end of the game.

Smart, who had played 17 of the first 20 minutes of the second half, subbed out with just under four minutes remaining and the Celtics trailing by 13. A little more than a minute later, he started to walk toward the scorer’s table to check back in, but coach Brad Stevens immediately followed him. On the court, a turnover triggered the final TV timeout of the game.

“So he just wanted to go back in. And he had played 12 [consecutive] minutes or whatever, so he wasn’t going to go back in,” Stevens told reporters in Washington. Pressed on why Smart appeared upset, Stevens added, “He wanted to go back in badly.”

Source: Chris Forsberg of ESPN