This season has been a roller coaster for the Los Angeles Lakers as the team has gone through stretches of excellent play, while at other times looking like a team that wouldn’t make the playoffs. With their victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night, the Lakers have now won three straight games and this win seems to have meant a bit more than others.
The Lakers have not been a team that has had many comeback victories as of late, but they were able to rally in the fourth to come away with a 110-101 win and Marcus Smart played a big role in that with 10 points, seven rebounds, four steals and three blocks. And despite what he described as a chaotic game, Smart was proud of the Lakers locking in to come out on top.
“Just staying locked in,” Smart said when asked what was the key to the win. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been in that position and had to fight back to get a victory. But it was just staying locked in, staying in control. Especially in tonight’s game it was a lot going on, with the refs, from both teams. Just chaotic, but we stayed with it and came out with the win.”
More importantly, Smart believes that a win like this can really change the trajectory of this Lakers season and push them towards being the team they believe they can ultimately become.
“Huge. Monumental for us,” Smart added. “Nights like this can change the trajectory for teams and players. So hopefully this win tonight and the way and fashion that we won it kicks our confidence up and we can keep this alive and going. Because the way we played tonight and the way we played over the last two games is something that we know we’re capable of.
“I know you guys and everybody else is hoping we can be consistent with it and that’s something that we’re trying to do. Tonight was a key factor for us to go back, look at, see what we did right and try to multiply it.”
Consistency has been an issue for the Lakers all season long, but sometimes it takes just one victory to kick everything into gear. Beating the Pelicans, a lottery team, wouldn’t seem like a catalyst of that nature, but the style in which the Lakers won, and the grit and resilience they showed down the stretch is something that can carry on going forward, and they’ll need that going into this next run of games.
JJ Redick credits Marcus Smart for starring in his role for Lakers
In order for a team to succeed, they need the role players to really step up and deliver and Lakers coach JJ Redick praised Marcus Smart for starring in his role and giving L.A. exactly what they need from him every night.
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