Celtics Notebook: Marcus Smart fined $50,000, Hayward could return this weekend

Marcus Smart was fined $50,000 for the second time this season in the wake of a two-handed shove on Joel Embiid that led to his ejection in Wednesday’s loss to the Sixers.

The fifth-year guard earned his third fine of the season in the NBA following the Flagrant 2 foul. He had already been fined a combined $60,000 for scuffles with DeAndre Bembry and J.R. Smith this year, both of which resulted in his ejections as well. Smart avoid a suspension for those incidents though and will be available for Boston when they matchup against the Hornets on Saturday night in Charlotte.

Brad Stevens spoke about the situation in greater depth after Wednesday’s loss.

“I’m disappointed in Marcus,” Brad Stevens said after the game. “Like, we need you. Like, Baynes is already out. We need him to be in the game. No matter what happens, we need that to happen...Don’t get it wrong: We love all that Marcus is. And part of Marcus is his fire. As you know, a time or two a year, it gets the best of him. But this is just a reminder of how important he is. He knows how we all feel and he knows we all love him. That’s just part of it. It’s part of a long season.”

Gordon Hayward getting closer, Baynes should be back for playoffs

The veteran swingman has missed two straight games since entering the NBA's concussion protocol on Sunday following a collision with John Collins. He's progressed on that front in recent weeks though and Danny Ainge was optimistic about his odds of returning this weekend in his weekly interview with Toucher and Rich.

"I did speak with Gordon, and it looks like Gordon is getting well and he's going through the protocol," Ainge said. "So, my guess is he'll either play Saturday or Sunday. He'll play this weekend; I'm not exactly sure when he'll play."

Aron Baynes also suffered a Grade 2 sprained ankle on Wednesday night, which has sidelined players for up to 2-4 weeks in previous instances this year. However, Ainge downplayed the severity of the injury during his interview.

"I don't know. It's day-to-day," Ainge told Toucher and Rich. "I don't think it was a terribly bad ankle sprain. I don't think it's going to be three weeks, but I think that it's just a day-to-day injury. We'll obviously be careful. We need everybody healthy by playoffs."

With Baynes sidelined in the interim, it's possible the Celtics could sign some additional depth to their frontcourt, particularly if Baynes' absence overlaps with planned rest games for Al Horford. Thomas Robinson just signed with the Maine Red Claws and would be a candidate to be signed, while other veteran big men including Marcin Gortat remain on the open market. The Celtics can sign a player at any point before the end of the regular season in order to have them eligible for the 15-man postseason roster.

Balancing rest and seeding remains a priority

The Celtics essentially locked themselves into a 4/5 matchup with the Pacers in the first round after a loss on Wednesday to the Sixers but with the team going 11-10 since February 1st, there is still plenty of work to do to tighten things up over the final 10 games of the regular season.

“We’re just trying to get to that playoff level right now,” Terry Rozier told reporters in Philadelphia. “Obviously we got 10 games left. We don’t want to look past these 10 games but we’re also getting prepared for the playoffs, so some guys may rest. But we got to get in that mindset right now. Once the playoffs here, there’s like no taking no steps back. We gotta be ready to come out the gates, fresh out the gates.

“I think we’re right there, we just need to clean up some little things and that’s the encouraging part. Like, we’re just going to keep going now. Keep going and don’t want to take a step backwards because we lost to a good team at their spot.