Without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, the Los Angeles Lakers need some players to step up alongside LeBron James to take down the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. In Game 1 it was Luke Kennard who had his moment and in Game 2 it was Marcus Smart getting the shine.
Smart knocked down five 3-pointers to finish with 25 points, seven assists and five steals as the Lakers took a 2-0 series lead with a 101-94 win over the Rockets. Smart was huge in crunch time too with a late 3-pointer, a big steal and some clutch free throws and James noted that the veteran guard is used to being in these big games and is unafraid of the stage.
“He’s not afraid of the moment,” James said after the victory. “He’s always been assigned some of the best players that [have] ever played this game in his career. So to have someone like that, it just brings a lot of composure to our team. Especially when we’re missing — I hate to beat a dead horse, but it’s two big horses — with AR [Austin Reaves] and Luka [Doncic] out. So to have that, it means a lot to our ballclub.”
Smart is a former Defensive Player of the Year who has guarded just about every great player of his generation over the years, including James himself. And while he had it going offensively on this night, it’s the things that don’t show up in the box score that are just important.
“Just knowing his resume, just knowing what he’s all about. He just plays winning basketball,” James added. “And obviously, he’s been big-time for us offensively in this series, but it’s what he brings—the intangibles. Sometimes a lot of the things he does don’t even show up in the boxscore. They don’t track you diving for a loose ball, they don’t track you boxing out and how many times you get your hand on a tip or deflection. Obviously we track it, but the boxscore doesn’t track it.”
Those things that James speaks of really shifts the energy, not only of the other players on the team, but also the home crowd as well and that is needed in the postseason. Smart is also a high IQ player and those are the types that always click with James, as he attested to as well.
“You guys saw the meme after Game 1. I can look at him and he knows what the hell I’m talking about. He can relate to me,” James said of Smart.
James went viral during Game 1 of the series as he was seen making a face trying to communicate to someone who was off-camera. As it turns out, that someone was Smart and whatever the message was, he understood it. And with those two and the rest of the Lakers all on the same page, this squad has taken control of this series despite being massive underdogs.
Marcus Smart makes Lakers’ playoff history with Game 2 performance
It wasn’t just the intangibles in Game 2 as Smart made a number of plays that did show up in the box score. He in fact made Lakers franchise history as the first player with five made 3-pointers and five steals in a single playoff game.
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