Marcus Smart

Two seasons into his journey through the Southwest, Marcus Smart — even with unfinished business to attend to, and a still-being-written story — remains a match made in heaven for the city built through “grit-and-grind.” Apex-level in his ability to change a game’s trajectory by hustling, the trophy-raising defensive specialist verifies it, amending a rare 3-point misfire through a swipe of Ron Holland II’s dribble, followed by a head-first dive to collect a steal. Glued to the floor, and in search of outlets, Smart completes the two-way sequence, delivering a room service dish to a cutting teammate for a heads-up score. As if his impact needed to be quantified, Smart entered the game with Memphis trailing by nine, only to leave his red-uniformed teammates with an 11-point advantage by shift’s end. The end-of-night box score confirmed identical excellence, with Smart leading a 72-point bench scoring charge by producing 25 points (on 8-of-12 shooting), four rebounds, five assists, three steals, seven 3-pointers, and a +25 plus-minus in just 20 minutes.