The Boston Celtics picked up one of the more surprising losses of the 2020-21 season on Tuesday night. With Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker both sidelined, the Celtics fell to the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder, 119-115, despite a 39-point, 11-rebound outing from Jaylen Brown.
In the aftermath, some frustrations boiled over, and one of the team’s top rotation players will be suspended as a result. The league announced that Marcus Smart crossed some sort of line “during and after” the game in his interactions with the officials, and he was accused of “directing threatening language toward” one of the referees. As a result, the Celtics’ glue guy will receive a one-game suspension, which he will serve on Wednesday night against the Charlotte Hornets.
It is unclear exactly what Smart said to earn this suspension, nor is it clear which referee drew his ire to the point that he picked up a suspension. Still, Smart’s the team’s emotional leader, and he’s normally pretty good at knowing the line that he can’t cross, even when he’s really frustrated by how a game has gone. Still, Boston is probably pretty bummed out about any sort of suspension for Smart, as the team is in a battle to stay in the 6-seed and miss out on the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.