Marcus Smart had a brief-but-animated flare-up with assistant coaches late in the fourth quarter of the Boston Celtics' 123-108 loss to the Washington Wizards. Smart was sent to the locker room before the end of the game.

Smart had played 17 of the first 20 minutes of the second half but was subbed out with four minutes remaining and the Celtics trailing by 13 points. Approximately one minute later, Smart started to walk toward the scorer's table to check back in but Brad Stevens immediately followed him.

Smart returned to the bench at that point and sat down in the huddle as if he was re-entering the game. Some of Boston's assistant coaches attempted to remove him, but Smart was shown on the television broadcast having a heated exchange with assistants Jerome Allen and Jamie Young, which included waving a towel in their direction as Stevens sat in front of the huddle. 

 

"So he just wanted to go back in. And he had played 12 [consecutive] minutes or whatever, so he wasn't going to go back in," Stevens told reporters in Washington.

Pressed on why Smart appeared upset, Stevens added, "He wanted to go back in badly."

Smart was asked about the situation as well.

"Just coaches and players, they're real passionate about the game and hate losing and having different opinions about certain things in the game," Smart told reporters in Washington. "Of course, I wanted to go back in. Just like everybody else to play it out and give it everything they had and leave it on the court. We had different opinions on that."

 

Smart later apologized on Twitter.