Marcus Smart wins NBA Hustle Award for second straight season
BOSTON -- A lot of what Marcus Smart does for the Boston Celtics doesn't always show up in the box score. He's pretty good at draining threes and dishing out assists, but his calling card is the grit and determination that he plays with every night.
Smart is one of the NBA's best hustle players, an attribute that has once again earned him the NBA Hustle Award, the league announced Thursday. It's the second straight season that Smart has taken home the award, and the third time since it first debuted in 2016-17.
The NBA has been tracking "hustle stats" since the 2016 postseason, stats that Smart racks up in bunches. He's always hitting the deck for 50-50 balls, and ranked 14th in the NBA in loose balls recovered per game during the regular season. And Smart is never afraid to step in front of a driving player to try and draw a charge, usually sacrificing his body and well-being in the process. Smart was 10th in charges drawn per game this season, taking 11 total charges in his 61 games.
He didn't win Defensive Player of the Year for a second straight season, but Smart remained an absolute menace on that end of the floor for Boston. He racked up 2.6 deflections per game (16th in the NBA) and 1.5 steals per game (10th), and his hustle helped the Celtics finish the season second in defensive efficiency at 110.6 points per 100 possessions.
As for his non-hustle stats, Smart averaged 11.5 points, 6.3 assists (a new career high), and 3.1 rebounds during the regular season. Fittingly, it was his hustle and grit that helped the Celtics blow out the Philadelphia 76ers, 121-87, in Game 2 of their second-round playoff series on Wednesday night.
Smart beat out Golden State's Draymond Green and Indiana's Aaron Nesmith (his former Celtics teammates) this season to become the first player to win the NBA Hustle Award in consecutive seasons.
