INDIANAPOLIS — When he’s on the court, Marcus Smart elevates the Lakers’ ceiling. And the numbers back it up.
The veteran guard leads the team with a 4.0 in the plus-minus. Smart tops the team in defensive rating, for players who have played at least 40 games, with a 110.9 score. He is a part of the team’s best three-player lineup (statistically) alongside Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves – posting a plus-7.1 in 30 games. When the Lakers lost to the Detroit Pistons on Monday night, Lakers coach JJ Redick relayed the obvious.
“Not having Smart tonight killed us,” Redick said.
In the last game Smart missed before Monday, on March 12 against the Chicago Bulls, the Lakers allowed 130 points in a 142-130 win at Crypto.com Arena, their third-most points allowed in the calendar year.
“I wish there was something I can praise about our defense, but I’m not going to be able to,” Redick said about the Smart-less Lakers nearly two weeks ago.
Smart has that impact on the team around him. As Reaves said Monday night, Smart is the team’s “glue guy,” playing unselfishly, guarding the opposing team’s best player and boosting the team’s intensity on the court.
“When you don’t have that, you know, it sucks, but it’s next man up mentality,” Reaves said.
Smart (right ankle contusion) was once again unavailable to play on Wednesday night against the Indiana Pacers, joining center Deandre Ayton (back soreness), forward Rui Hachimura (right calf soreness) and forward Adou Thiero (left knee soreness) as inactive.
Smart and Hachimura missed their second consecutive game after suffering their respective ailments against Orlando on Saturday. Redick said a team-wide priority is building health for the remainder of the season, allowing them to play to their designated style; one that has emerged during the team’s recently-snapped nine-game win streak.
“That’s important for us, that we can get healthy and we can play our rotation,” Redick said Monday night. “Post-Luke (Kennard) trade, I think when all nine guys have played, we’ve been a good basketball team. … You need Smart for his ball handling, you need Smart for his defense, you need Rui for his shooting. Those pieces are important to complement everybody. And you know, we need to finish the season strong, but we also need to finish the season healthy.”
NBA OFFICIALLY EXPLORES EXPANSION
NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that the league’s board of governors has approved a vote for the league to explore bids and applicants for expansion teams exclusively in Las Vegas and Seattle.
“Today’s vote reflects our Board’s interest in exploring potential expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle – two markets with a long history of support for NBA basketball,” Silver said in a press release. “We look forward to taking this next step and engaging with interested parties.”
In a press conference following the meeting and vote, Silver said expansion is not a guarantee, but he added that there is nothing to suggest that there would not be heavy interest in new ownership groups for Seattle and Las Vegas. ESPN reported that the fee to own an expansion team will likely be in between $7 and $10 billion and that the teams, if expansion were to occur, would start playing in the 2028-29 season.
Las Vegas currently hosts the Summer League, while Seattle hosted the Seattle Supersonics from 1967-2008 before the franchise relocated from the Pacific Northwest to become the Oklahoma City Thunder.