Last night’s shouting match in the Boston Celtics’ locker room following their Game 2 loss to the Miami Heat in their East Finals series with that team was between Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown, reports The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
“Sources told The Athletic that Smart stormed into the Celtics postgame locker room saying that other players needed to be held accountable and not simply point the finger toward him when things are going wrong,” explained Charania.
“As Smart continued and his voice grew louder, sources said Brown snapped back and shouted that Celtics players must stay together and that their actions must come as a team, not individually, and that Smart needed to cool off. Those sources added Smart had verbal exchanges with a couple of the assistant coaches during the game.”
The exchange, while emotional, was one of only words, Charania reporting teammates intervening to de-escalate the situation quickly, with the pair having reconciled since.
Dropping two games in a row, Boston’s locker room erupts https://t.co/XtflWmrecZ
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) September 18, 2020
“They will move past this and focus on the task,” offered Charania’s source.
If they are to have any hope of winning Game 3, they had better. Teams can survive — and even flourish because of — such passionate exchanges.
They cannot survive the kind of disunity we have seen from Boston late on the court.
