TD Garden, Boston, Mass. — Marcus Smart was interviewed after the Celtics took Game 3 in a 125-119 win against the Nets. Smart made several key plays, and was integral in the team’s win. “You’ve got a team that’s desperate and fighting, so you can never count them out,” said Smart after the game.
In the uphill battle against Brooklyn, and with Boston clearly playing the role of underdog in their matchup, Marcus gave his thoughts. “Like I said before, the world knows it, we know it, you know?” said Smart. “It ain’t going to be easy, so you can’t lay down. You can’t take a step back, you have to press forward and you have to be able to fight back and that’s what we did tonight. It’s not over. This is a good win for us, we got another one to go.”
Smart was asked what allowed the team to bounce back and not cave early in the game.
“Our mentality…things were going our way early…we just tried to stay as positive as we could and keep our foot on the gas pedal. No matter what the outcome was, we had to be willing to fight and sacrifice our body and it’s going to take everybody on the court and everybody that came in. So we just wanted to go out there and leave it all on the court.”
Smart praised the fantastic performance from teammate Jayson Tatum.
“The way he was locked in, his mentality…attack attack attack, and just keep going no matter what the outcome is going for him…his play, he never let it deter him…if he was scoring the ball or not on the defensive end, if they were scoring…KD went on a barrage of shots. James Harden, and he did a good job of coming back, answering and just staying in attack mode.”
