{"id":493881,"date":"2026-04-22T12:14:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=493881"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:14:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:14:32","slug":"marcus-smart-swings-the-series-as-lakers-take-2-0-lead-over-the-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/marcus-smart-swings-the-series-as-lakers-take-2-0-lead-over-the-rockets\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Smart swings the series as Lakers take 2-0 lead over the Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"2493\" data-end=\"2906\">As reported by <strong data-start=\"2508\" data-end=\"2516\">ESPN<\/strong>, <strong data-start=\"2518\" data-end=\"2534\">Marcus Smart<\/strong> was the key figure in the <strong data-start=\"2561\" data-end=\"2595\">Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 101-94 win<\/strong> over the <strong data-start=\"2605\" data-end=\"2624\">Houston Rockets<\/strong> in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series. With <strong data-start=\"2677\" data-end=\"2692\">Luka Doncic<\/strong> and <strong data-start=\"2697\" data-end=\"2714\">Austin Reaves<\/strong> still out, Smart finished with <strong data-start=\"2746\" data-end=\"2783\">25 points, 7 assists and 5 steals<\/strong>, making a huge impact offensively while also taking on <strong data-start=\"2839\" data-end=\"2855\">Kevin Durant<\/strong> defensively.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2908\" data-end=\"3316\">The defensive detail stood out even more. According to <strong data-start=\"2963\" data-end=\"2980\">ESPN Research<\/strong>, Durant shot just <strong data-start=\"2999\" data-end=\"3010\">1-for-3<\/strong> and committed <strong data-start=\"3025\" data-end=\"3044\">three turnovers<\/strong> across the <strong data-start=\"3056\" data-end=\"3074\">18 possessions<\/strong> in which he was defended by Smart, even though he ended the night with <strong data-start=\"3146\" data-end=\"3159\">23 points<\/strong> overall. That matchup became one of the biggest reasons the Lakers were able to grab a commanding <strong data-start=\"3258\" data-end=\"3277\">2-0 series lead<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3318\" data-end=\"3656\"><strong data-start=\"3318\" data-end=\"3334\">LeBron James<\/strong> added <strong data-start=\"3341\" data-end=\"3380\">28 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists<\/strong>, while <strong data-start=\"3388\" data-end=\"3404\">Luke Kennard<\/strong> chipped in <strong data-start=\"3416\" data-end=\"3429\">23 points<\/strong>. Houston, despite Durant\u2019s return, was held below 100 points for the second straight game and shot just <strong data-start=\"3534\" data-end=\"3543\">40.4%<\/strong> from the field. The series now shifts to Houston for <strong data-start=\"3597\" data-end=\"3617\">Game 3 on Friday<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The former Defensive Player of the Year delivered a complete Game 2 performance on both ends of the floor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":372083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-493881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/02\/Los-Angeles-Lakers.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493881"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=493881"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=493881"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=493881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}