One Boston Celtics player sounded very happy to get the last laugh on LaMelo Ball and the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night.
After the Celtics beat the Hornets in a hard-fought overtime contest, Celtics guard Marcus Smart took a shot at his younger counterpart Ball. Smart was on the receiving end of a Ball highlight in the third quarter. The 20-year-old crossed over Smart and hit a stepback three in his face.
“It happens,” Smart said of the play, per Darren Hartwell of NBC Sports. “I’m a defender. Just like a shot blocker, you’re gonna get dunked on a few times. All he did was make a good move, stopped, and I just stopped.
“As we know, a player like him, I’m gonna make up for it, and I did it twice,” Smart went on. “He’s going to get all of the Overtime, House of Highlights, SportsCenter and all that. But we got the win, and that’s all that matters.”
Smart is right that Ball gets a lot of love from highlight-driven social media pages. With Ball's snazzy full-court passes and his unlimited range from deep, his flamboyant style of play is perfect content for the modern era of sports consumption. Even Ball’s style off the court is pretty flashy too.
A two-time All-Defensive First Teamer, Smart is the complete antithesis of that, however. He will never find himself on any highlight page unless it is for chasing down a loose ball or putting the clamps on someone in crunch time. Smart and the Celtics must be very pleased that their style won out Monday.
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