Marcus Smart won the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award this season.
That’s great.
Jrue Holiday showed who the real Defensive Player of the Year was on Wednesday night.
Holiday blocked Smart, then stripped him a possession later to secure a 110-107 win for the Bucks in Game 5.
It put the cap on an improbable 4th quarter comeback.
How about this?
Holiday becomes the only player in the last 25 postseasons to record a block and a steal in the final 10 seconds of a game.
Jrue has been much maligned throughout this postseason, and rightfully so.
He’s left more than a little to be desired on the offensive side of the floor.
But defensively, there’s not a better guard in the NBA.
Not Marcus Smart, not anybody.
He didn’t just steal the ball late Wednesday night at TD Garden.
He snatched that award, and maybe the series, right from Smart’s fingertips.