With the Los Angeles Lakers taking on the Houston Rockets in the first round without their two leading scorers in Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, the importance of Marcus Smart grew even larger due to his experience and toughness.
Smart has been in a lot of postseason series’, and that showed in Game 1 when he had 15 points, two rebounds, eight assists, two blocks and a steal in the Lakers’ impressive win. The Lakers were able to match the Rockets’ physicality and stayed composed when things got chippy, which is the exact moment that Smart knew his team was ready.
“Just our ability to stay poised,” he said after the win. “You’re playing against a really good team out there who does a really good job of mucking up the game, seeing who’s the toughest team. It got a little chippy out there, a couple technicals called. And I think for this team to be able to stay as poised as we did, I think that was the part for me that really stood out and was like OK, I think we’re ready. It’s gonna be a good one and as long as we can continue to do that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The Lakers got off to a nice start, but a poor second quarter let the Rockets back in the game. Oftentimes, the Lakers would let things spiral from there, but as Smart mentioned, they stayed poised and put together an exceptional third quarter to take control of the game.
Kevin Durant being out obviously played a huge factor in it, but L.A. has a ton of veteran experience on their roster with Smart, LeBron James and others, and that really showed in Game 1.
Marcus Smart compares Lakers to 2018 Celtics
Playing without All-Star teammates in the postseason is something Smart has done before as his 2018 Boston Celtics team made the Eastern Conference Finals despite Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward being out.
He discussed what he sees in this Lakers team without Doncic and Reaves that is similar to the 2018 Celtics.
“Resiliency. The 2018 team, we were resilient,” Smart said. “No matter who we had on the floor, we were gonna make sure to go out and give everything that we had. We’re in the same scenario here, our two best players get hurt, and we gotta show we’re resilient, especially against a team that’s gonna come out and make you prove it. I think that right there is the equivalent of that ’18 season that I had and the ability to be able to bounce back under this adversity that we’re going through. That’s what makes this team dangerous.”
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