The guard was suspended one game by the NBA after delivering an elbow to Jason Terry‘s throat. The league deemed the elbow, delivered on Friday night at TD Garden, a flagrant foul.

Smith was ejected from the game for the flagrant foul 2 after scoring 15 points with four rebounds, three assists and two steals in 24 minutes.

Check out the elbow in the video below.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers told reporters Thursday that there is no better crowd in the NBA than the one at TD Garden. His team will finally be able to play in front of that crowd Friday night, when they return home for the first time in more than two weeks to take on the Knicks in the third game of their Eastern Conference first-round series.

Boston struggled through the first two games at Madison Square Garden, coming apart at the seams in the second half in both contests, and now finds itself in a virtual must-win situation in Game 3. If the Celtics can get the job done on their home floor, they’ll go back to New York tied 2-2. But if not, they’ll be hitting the golf course much earlier than they would have preferred.

For more from Rivers and his players, check out the video above.

In the wake of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings, the Bruins and Celtics both called off their originally scheduled home games. The teams returned to practice Tuesday, and players and coaches took the opportunity to express their love for the city they call home.

“Boston, for me personally and my family, is a city we’ve fallen in love with,” Bruins head coach Claude Julien said. “So when you see something like that happen, there’s no doubt it affects you as an individual and even for us as a group.”

Julien’s basketball counterpart, Doc Rivers, echoed his sentiments, expressing the pride he feels to represent the people of Boston.

“Being in the city, the one thing I will say is that you’re just really proud to be a part of Boston,” the Celtics coach said. “I saw people who didn’t work for the police or anything like that directing traffic, showing people where to go. I just thought the spirit of Boston was phenomenal last night.”

To hear more from Julien, Rivers and their players, see the video above.

The two Eastern Conference All-Stars teamed up to make fun of TNT announcer Craig Sager‘s turquoise suit. Sager asked Anthony about the spat between the Knick and Celtic at practice, and Anthony pulled Garnett over to help him answer the question.

“Honey Nut Cheerios” were not mentioned, but Garnett did ask Sager what the motivation for wearing his suit was. Check out Sager’s answer and the fun exchange between Garnett and Anthony in the video below.

During the fourth quarter of the game Jeff Green did what Jeff Green does, putting home a monster dunk to the delight of the TD Garden crowd. The slam put the Celtics up by 21 at that point, en route to the team’s third consecutive win without point guard Rajon Rondo, and first without rookie wonder Jared Sullinger.

Check out Green’s dunk in the video below.

The Celtics scored one of their biggest wins of the season on Sunday, a double-overtime victory over the Miami Heat, but all talk in Boston since then has been about an even bigger loss.

All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo sought medical attention prior to Sunday’s game and was diagnosed with a torn ACL, bringing his season to an end. Now head coach Doc Rivers is faced with a tough decision. Should the Celtics stay the course with the pieces they have, or decide to “blow it all up” and start over from scratch?

WEEI’s Mike Mutnansky and Rob Bradford stopped by NESN Daily to share their opinions on the Rondo situation. Check out their thoughts in the video above.

That’s what Paul Pierce faced on Sunday when ABC’s Doris Burke informed him that Rajon Rondo was diagnosed with an ACL tear. The look on Pierce’s face told the entire story, as he likely had the Celtics’ season and his future with the organization flashing before his eyes.

Watch Pierce as he learns about Rondo’s injury after the Heat-Celtics game in the video below.

The Celtics have recently suffered from a lack of hustle, but that wasn’t what was plaguing them Thursday night.

After the 89-86 loss to the Knicks, Doc Rivers took to the podium and actually praised his team’s overall effort, noting that if he sees the same going forward the team should be alright. The comments were in stark contrast to the coach’s statements after Boston lost to the Pistons on Sunday, in which he noted that changes could be coming if the commitment didn’t improve. Nonetheless, questions remain about the Celtics’ willingness to compete night-in and night-out.

Check out Rivers’ positive postgame comments in the video above.

The Charlotte Bobcats had such a promising start to the 2012-13 season. They won seven of their first 12 games led mostly by second-year player Kemba Walker. Then it all came crashing down.

After beating the Wizards in overtime on Nov. 24, they lost 18 straight before finally beating the Bulls on New Year’s Eve. They’ve won just one game since, and came in to Boston with a 9-27 record. They fell to 9-28 on Monday, but Doc Rivers was impressed with their resolve through such a tough season.

“Every coach I talk to about them says the same thing,” said Rivers. “They just keep playing and that’s hard to do, but it’s really nice to see. Those guys started off so well, then went on this struggle, yet they come out and put the effort out every night. They’re giving you their best.”

Watch the video above to hear more of Rivers comments after the Celtics’ 100-89 victory over Charlotte.

Jared Sullinger may be a rookie, but he sure doesn’t play like one.

That’s been a recurring theme during an up-and-down season (thus far) for the Celtics. The rest of the squad may be woefully inconsistent up to this point, but Sullinger has played far beyond his years, bringing stability off the bench to the power forward position.

After opening the new year by losing their fourth game in a row on Wednesday, on Friday the Celtics took it to the Indiana Pacers 94-75. After the game, head coach Doc Rivers again singled out Sullinger, and you can hear his praises in the video above.

These aren’t the Celtics. They can’t be.

That’s likely the agonizing response of many C’s fans throughout this losing streak, which was extended to four games Wednesday night when the Grizzlies showed up to TD Garden and controlled play for four quarters en route to a 93-83 victory. And the fact of the matter is that the Celtics have some serious flaws.

The C’s now sit at 14-17, which is a far cry from where many expected Doc Rivers‘ squad to be at this point. After all, the Celtics pushed the Miami Heat to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, and appeared to add plenty of depth during the offseason.

Rivers isn’t ready to panic, though. Instead, he’s focused on getting his team to make necessary adjustments in the hopes that the C’s will soon hit their stride. In fact, the Celtics already received somewhat of a boost on Wednesday with the return of Avery Bradley, who should provide some much needed defensive help along the perimeter.

You must crawl before you can walk, and you must walk before you can run. Things better change soon, though, because the C’s look like a team struggling to even crawl right now.

Check out the video above from NESN Daily to hear more from Rivers and NESN’s Naoko Funayama.

Just as the Celtics are finally getting Avery Bradley back from injury, they still may not have their projected starting five on the court at the same time.

Rajon Rondo is nursing injuries that could keep him out of Wednesday’s game against the Grizzlies. Fortunately, it’s not an injury that should keep Rondo out long, and Boston should have their best five together soon.

Rondo and Doc Rivers had some high praise for Bradley as he returns to the team. Rondo said Bradley is the best defensive guard in the NBA, while Rivers said that Bradley is in the top five in on-the-ball defense. You would think that would do wonders for the Celtics’ struggling defense.

Watch the video above to hear how the Celtics think Bradley’s return will help the team.

Coming off a strong performance against the Brooklyn Nets on Christmas Day, it was easy to think that some of the Celtics’ good fortune may translate into momentum going into a West Coast road trip. That did not happen.

The Celtics got demolished by the Clippers, Warriors and Kings on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively. The reason why, Celtics beat writer Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe says, is that the Celtics got caught off-guard by those California teams, and the NBA is not afraid of Boston anymore.

At two games under .500 and currently on the bubble in the Eastern Conference, it’s safe to say the Celtics need answers. Washburn says the team needs to get better defensively, and while the return of Avery Bradley should help that aspect, it might not be the difference alone.

Watch the video above to hear what Washburn thinks the Celtics must do to compete in 2013.

BOSTON — As the misses mounted for Jason Terry, it became almost comical. Here was one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, a player with more clutch shots on his resume than all except a handful of active players. Yet he could not have found the bottom of the net if you gave him a map and sat him on top of the rim.

Terry was the master bricklayer, shooting 1-for-15 from the field in the Celtics’ 99-94 overtime loss to the Bucks on Friday, but he was by no means the only culprit. Playing their third game in four nights, several Celtics saw their normally reliable shooting strokes disappear. If not for a herculean performance by Paul Pierce, the Celtics would not have needed five extra minutes to earn the defeat.

“For me, this is a tough one to swallow,” Terry said. “Close game, team needs you, and you just couldn’t get it done.”

Kevin Garnett shot 6-for-22 and Brandon Bass was 2-for-6 as Boston lost for the fourth time in five games. The Bucks got 27 points from Monta Ellis and 12 points from Brandon Jennings, yet shot-swatter Larry Sanders only blocked two shots against the Celtics, one of his favorite victims. If not for Terry and Garnett’s cold shooting, that stat might have been the most shocking.

Poor shooting did not explain the Celtics’ ineffectiveness on defense, however. The Bucks whittled down four 10-point deficits in a matter of minutes, finally fighting back from the double-digit deficit with three minutes left in the first half to tie the game less than seven minutes into the third quarter. Even when the Celtics rebuilt their lead to eight points entering the fourth quarter, it took just over four minutes for the Bucks to tie the score again.

More than anyone’s shooting struggles, those defensive breakdowns were what frustrated Pierce in another close game against a supposedly inferior opponent. Solid all-around efforts off the bench by Jared Sullinger, Jeff Green and Courtney Lee were either insufficient or inconsistent to close out the Bucks without some scoring contribution by Terry, Garnett or Rajon Rondo.

“There’s going to be nights when shots don’t fall, and one thing we can control, I think, is our intensity on the defensive end,” said Pierce, who ended up with 35 points. “We are inconsistent. We play well for the most part and we look up there and see they shoot 43 percent, but it has to be throughout the whole game, more consistently. We can’t give up 17-0 runs to Cleveland. We can’t give up 10-0 runs to Milwaukee, and then decide that’s when we want to play defense.”

The Bucks (14-11) have a better record than the Celtics (13-13), but Boston was expected to own this series. Milwaukee is looking to avoid a third straight season in the draft lottery and has not made it out of the first round of the playoffs since George W. Bush‘s sixth month as president. No amount of backcourt firepower or frontcourt athleticism was supposed to make the Bucks capable of beating the Celtics three times in four tries.

“Give the Bucks credit,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “They’ve beaten us three times, so they’re the better team right now. Maybe we’ll play them later, which means playoffs, and we’re better by then.”

Pierce’s point total only partly described his effort on Friday. He missed only one shot in five attempts in the first quarter, then hit four of his next seven shots between the second and third quarters. With 42.2 seconds to go in regulation, the Celtics trailed by seven points and fans began streaming for the exits. But Pierce hit a pair of free throws, Jennings missed a pair and Rondo converted an inbounds lob play to Green for a dunk to cut the deficit to 88-85.

With 18.2 seconds left, Rivers and his coaches had what he later called a “long debate” — which probably lasted less than a minute — about whether to intentionally foul or defend. Rivers put it to a player vote, and all five voted to defend. When the ball was inbounded, Jennings, who was expecting a foul, got flustered when he was trapped near halfcourt and threw the ball directly to Rondo. The Celtics point guard dished to Terry, who clanged a 3-pointer (his 13th miss of the night). But Green tipped the offensive rebound out to Pierce, who quickly set his feet and fired a three. The ball dropped through the net to tie the game with 2.7 seconds remaining and caused an eruption among the fans left in the stands.

In overtime, though, Pierce faded while the rest of the Celtics’ problems persisted. Clearly gassed, Pierce missed three of his four shots, although his one make helped Garnett tie the game on final time, on a jumper.

This is what the Celtics are right now. They are only good enough to hang with any opponent as long as Pierce, or one of their other stars, is putting together an epic performance. When he falls just short of fails to get some token assistance from a teammate, the Celtics struggle to beat anyone.

It should not have to be this hard. If the Celtics had their way, they would defend well enough to produce their share of transition baskets, and their offense would be balanced enough to not need a 35-year-old forward to fill a SportsCenter reel for them to have a chance to win.

“It’s good teaching for our guys later that you’re never out of a game, and you never have a game won,” Rivers said of his team’s ability to wipe out the seven-point deficit in 42 seconds. “It can go either way.”

At the moment, most of them are going just one way, and not in the direction the Celtics would like.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

As NESN Daily‘s Jamison Coyle points out, if the Milwaukee Bucks played the Celtics 82 times, they’d be NBA champions.

Fortunately for Boston that’s not how the league works. The Bucks definitely have the Celtics’ number, however, beating them for the third time on the season Friday. Paul Pierce was the lone bright spot for Boston, going for 35 points in the overtime loss.

Check out the video above for head coach Doc Rivers‘ postgame comments.

Jason Terry spent eight seasons in Dallas, earning Sixth Man of the Year honors in 2009 and winning an NBA title in 2011. But as the Celtics get set to host the Mavericks on Wednesday, Terry’s level of excitement is rather subdued.

While most players would be chomping at the bit to face their former squad, Terry understands that this year’s version of the Mavericks is much different than the teams he played on. Dirk Nowitzki is out, Shawn Marion might not play and Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler are long gone. In fact, head coach Rick Carlisle is the main attraction.

Terry admitted after practice on Tuesday that he’s excited to see Carlisle, who has been the Mavericks’ head coach since 2008 and who helped guide Terry’s 2011 Dallas squad to championship glory. JET also said he plans to give his former coach a big hug when the two meet up on the TD Garden hardwood on Wednesday.

Check out the video above to hear more about Terry’s upcoming game against his former team along with some comments from his current head coach, Doc Rivers.

The Boston Celtics had it going against the Sixers on Saturday night.

Boston shot 53 percent from the field and held Philadelphia to just 39 percent shooting on the Celtics’ way to a 92-79 victory. Kevin Garnett led all Celtics scorers with 19 points, while Jeff Green chipped in 16 more off the bench. The Sixers could not come up with an answer to the Celtics’ overall team effort, as four Boston players recorded double-digit scoring nights.

Doc Rivers was pleased with his team’s performance after the game. To hear what he had to say, check out the video above.

While Rajon Rondo and the Boston Celtics literally started a fight with Kris Humphries and the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday, it was not enough to pull out a win as Brooklyn beat Boston 95-83.

Rondo was ejected late in the second quarter after coming to the defense of Kevin Garnett, and in doing so ended his streak of games with double-digit assists. The Celtics tried to mount a comeback behind the efforts of Jason Terry and Leandro Barbosa in the second half, but the Nets were too much.

Brooklyn owned Boston on the glass and physically outmatched the Celtics. After the game Doc Rivers explained his disappointment in the effort and called his team “soft.”

To hear the rest of Rivers’ comments, check out the video above.

BOSTON — Doc Rivers claims to dislike coaching against his friends, but as he prepared to go up against one of his best friends in Avery Johnson, the Celtics coach seemed to be in a good mood.

Rivers addressed a number of topics in his usual pregame media availability, from basketball-related issues like Avery Bradley‘s continuing recovery from double-shoulder surgery and the Celtics’ efforts to make Jason Terry comfortable to meeting U.S. Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman before the game.

“Meeting any of those athletes, it’s pretty cool,” Rivers said. “You really appreciate it when you’re there. Obviously, the gold medals is nice, but even the ones who lose and seeing what they’ve gone through, knowing Ryan Lochte from Florida and all those guys who won gold medals and then lost as well, you can see the emotion.”

Rivers also touched on the possibility that Bradley could do some rehabilitation in the D-League, a facetious explanation for why Boston’s NBADL affiliate used to be in Utah and how he would pay for his NBA League Pass package, if he had to.

Check out a Rivers’ comments in full in the video above.

Have a question for Ben Watanabe? Send it to him via Twitter at @BenjeeBallgame or send it here.

The Celtics played a “clutter-free game” Friday night, according to head coach Doc Rivers, with the defensive miscues and chemistry struggles that have been issues in Boston’s losses falling away against the Thunder.

It all added up to a win for Boston, which defeated the defending Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder behind a marvelous effort by forward Jeff Green, who went for 17 points against his former team. Getting 27 points from Paul Pierce and 16 assists from Rajon Rondo certainly doesn’t hurt, either.

Check out the video above to see what Rivers had to say after the Celtics’ impressive victory.