Marcus Smart reveals that he played through a pinched nerve Tuesday night

BOSTON -- Marcus Smart had his fingerprints all over Tuesday night's near comeback by the Celtics in Philadelphia. After the 103-101 Boston defeat, Smart revealed that he was pretty dinged up during the contest.

And this wasn't just your average bump or bruise that most players are dealing with late in the season. This was a painful ailment that Smart played through: A pinched nerve.

Turn to your left, and now turn to your right. That's not something Marcus Smart could do without a stinging pain shooting through his arm Tuesday night. But he still gutted it out for 30 minutes against the 76ers.

With Jaylen Brown sitting out the first part of a back-to-back, Smart didn't have much choice but to play. He went on to score 17 points off 7-for-15 shooting while pulling down four rebounds and dishing out four assists.

That stat line is a little more impressive after learning what Smart was dealing with throughout the contest.

"Can barely turn my head to the left and it's just stinging," Smart told reporters after the loss. "My lower left arm is going numb here and there, so just trying to play through it and be out there for my team. But it definitely hurts, so we'll figure out what's going on."

Smart isn't sure what caused the pinched nerve, but he believes it could have stemmed from sleeping funny the night before.

Smart must have had quite the adrenaline boost during the contest, especially late in the game when he nearly helped Boston pull off a dramatic comeback. Down 103-96 with 9.1 seconds left, Smart made a nice and-one layup to trim that deficit to five. He then intentionally missed the ensuing free throw and soared in to get the miss. Smart made a nice no-look pass to Al Horford, who fed Derrick White for a 3-pointer to make it a two-point game with two seconds left.

The Celtics got one final chance to tie the game after forcing Joel Embiid into committing an offensive foul, but Jayson Tatum missed a tough turnaround jumper at the buzzer. Tuesday night was Boston's first loss to Philadelphia this season, though the Celtics still have the inside track to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. 

With a two-game lead and the tiebreaker over Philadelphia in the standings, the Celtics can clinch at least the two-seed with a win on Wednesday night when they host the Toronto Raptors at TD Garden. (Boston would need to win out and have Milwaukee lose its final three games to climb into the No. 1 seed in the East.)

Chances are Smart will not be suiting up for this one. But if it were up to him, he'll be out there.

"I would not like to sit, but I'm not going to push it if this neck is giving me some serious problems like it was tonight, to where every time down the court, I'm grabbing it," he said. "Then I'll probably sit out and give it some time. But if it starts to feel better, I'm definitely playing tomorrow."

Smart may want to play, but with just three games left before the playoffs, don't expect the Celtics to take any chances with their starting point guard.