Boston's Marcus Smart wins third NBA Hustle award in five years

The award, first given in 2017, is presented to the NBA player whose efforts make the largest impact even without being measured in the usual statistics.

No other player has won it more than once.

Smart, who has spent all nine of his NBA seasons with Boston, also won last year's Defensive Player of the Year award.

Smart averaged 11.5 points, a career-high 6.3 assists and 3.1 rebounds a game for the Celtics, who went 57-25 for their best season since 2008-09.

But he won the Hustle award by being among league leaders in such areas as deflecting passes, recovering loose balls, drawing charging calls from opposing players, setting screens, contesting shots and boxing out rivals for rebounds.

Smart's defensive work helped the Celtics rank second in the NBA in defensive efficiency.

The Celtics and Philadelphia are deadlocked at 1-1 in their Eastern Conference second-round best-of-seven playoff series with Game Three on Friday.