LOS ANGELES — Marcus Smart spent most of the final weeks of the regular season in street clothes, waiting for the green light to join the collective effort of replacing Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
Nine games of inaction. Nine games nursing ailments related to a night in Orlando on March 21 when big man Goga Bitadze fell on top of Smart. His hip ached with soreness, his right ankle left bruised as his rehabilitation process stalled longer than anticipated as the Lakers cleared the drawing board.
Even in the final week of the regular season, the Lakers ruled out Smart, listed as questionable pregame but ultimately unable to go, before they played the Golden State Warriors. Despite not suiting up 13 days ago, Smart’s impact went beyond the on-court stabilizing presence he’s become known for across his 12-year NBA career.
“Him and I had a conversation coming off those three losses,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said after their 101-94 Game 2 victory over the Houston Rockets, referencing the team’s three-game skid after Doncic and Reaves sustained regular-season-ending injuries.
“We had a conversation in San Francisco,” Redick continued. “I’m not going to share with you the details, but the biggest thing was just, because he has the voice he has, he can help create the belief and the confidence in our group. And I think he’s done that.”
He’s the coach on the court, unofficial coach on the bench, a finalist for the NBA’s teammate of the year honor and the player to help teammates off to the side mid-game – a source of encouragement for the likes of Deandre Ayton on the floor. Smart’s voice has become a prominent feature of the Lakers since he joined the team on a two-year contract during the offseason after being bought out of his contract by the Washington Wizards.
On Tuesday night, to take a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven first round of the NBA playoffs, the 32-year-old’s voice – and game – emerged again. Twenty-five points, his most in a playoff game since 2020 with the Boston Celtics, to go along with seven assists and five steals turned Smart into the face of a franchise for a night, a team all but counted out a week ago without their two leading scorers.
“I’m constantly talking to the staff to see what I can do to help,” Smart said Tuesday night when asked about his meeting with Redick in San Francisco. “The coaches aren’t out there and I try to be that quarterback out there for the coaches, relaying messages, getting everybody together. And that talk was just, to sum it up, really just, ‘Hey, go play basketball. Be you.’”
There’s the offensive effort – sinking five 3-pointers for the first time in a game since March 14 in the Lakers’ overtime win against the Denver Nuggets – where he tied the second-most points he’s scored since joining the Lakers. There’s the defensive effort, helping to successfully double-team Kevin Durant on the ball – often alongside forward Rui Hachimura – after the Rockets star nursed a knee injury in missing Game 1.
Redick referred to the 2018 Eastern Conference semifinals between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics, matching up head to head against Smart while on the tail end of his playing career. When Smart became available in free agency, Redick knew his former foe could be an asset to the Lakers – knowing what it takes, knowing the expectations of big-city basketball.
“I got to watch him as a newly retired player compete at the highest level and play in the (2022 NBA) Finals,” Redick said. “So I knew that the moment and the stage – being a Laker – was not going to affect him.”
Smart, sharing the NBA finals experience with LeBron James, has lowered the pulse of the Lakers through composure, James said.
Smart is still the defensive pest that the Lakers need him to be, unafraid to lay out for loose balls and steal extra possessions and helping hold a legend like Durant to just three second-half points and nine forced turnovers. But without Doncic and Reaves, Smart and Luke Kennard have stepped up into their scoring roles out of necessity – combining for an average of 45 points per game across the first two playoff games.
“He’s battle-tested … so obviously he’s not afraid of the moment,” James said of Smart. “I hate to beat a dead horse, but it’s two big horses – with AR and Luka out – so, to have (Smart), it means a lot to our ball club.”
For Smart, he’s just thankful for the return to the postseason, his first taste of win-or-go-home stakes and first glimpse of playoff basketball since the Celtics lost in Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat.
“I’m very grateful to be doing this,” Smart said. “I thank God every day, because I could have been out of the league, right? Injuries and things like that. So to be able to be back on this stage again, making the plays that I’m making with these guys, with this team, this organization, I’m just grateful.”