For what it's worth, Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard J.R. Smith agreed with the referees' decision to charge him with a flagrant-1 foul after he shoved Al Horford in midair as the Boston Celtics big man attempted to corral a lob at the rim in Game 2 on Tuesday.
"It was a good call," Smith told reporters after the game. "I blatantly pushed him. It wasn't like I was trying to low-bridge him or something to make sure he didn't get it. It was a good, hard foul. I can understand why they gave me a flagrant."
Celtics guard Marcus Smart didn't agree with Smith's decision at the time of the play, and immediately confronted his opponent, garnering a technical foul of his own.
"We're out there to play basketball," Smart told the postgame press conference. "I just looked at it - Al's a defenseless player, he's in the air, he can't control how his body goes, and he's not even looking. And you go and take two hands to the back - that's a dirty shot. You just can't allow that to keep happening. That's not the first time J.R. has done some dirty stuff, especially playing against us. He's known for it, especially playing against us. We know that.
"It's like a bully: You keep letting a bully keep picking on you, he's going to pick on you until you finally stand up, and that's what I tried to do. One of my guys was down, and I took offense to it."
