{"id":119328,"date":"2026-04-29T05:04:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T05:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/marcus-smart-calls-out-costly-mistakes-as-lakers-slip-in-game-4\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T05:04:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T05:04:30","slug":"marcus-smart-calls-out-costly-mistakes-as-lakers-slip-in-game-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/marcus-smart-calls-out-costly-mistakes-as-lakers-slip-in-game-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Smart Calls Out Costly Mistakes as Lakers Slip in Game 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Los Angeles Lakers missed a golden chance to close out their first-round series, falling heavily to the Houston Rockets in Game four.<\/p>\n<p>But for Marcus Smart, the issue wasn\u2019t tired legs, it was something far more fixable.<\/p>\n<p>Turnovers proved to be the defining problem. The Lakers coughed the ball up 23 times, leading directly to 30 points for Houston, a major swing in a game where momentum quickly got out of hand.<\/p>\n<p>Smart didn\u2019t shy away from the reality postgame.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA majority of them were mental. We were dropping passes, myself included,\u201d Smart <a href=\"https:\/\/lakersnation.com\/marcus-smart-believes-lakers-fatigue-in-game-4-was-more-mental-than-physical\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> after the loss. \u201cI was throwing passes to guys\u2019 legs, normal passes that we make on a regular basis. But it\u2019s something we gotta clean up. We know it and understand it. It\u2019s not gonna get easier, we understand that. But we\u2019ve played this team for four games now and the first three we did very well. So we understand it, just gotta continue to stay poised and get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There were reasons to suspect fatigue. Key players like LeBron James, Luke Kennard and Rui Hachimura had been logging heavy minutes throughout the series, while Smart himself had taken on a significant workload. Add in a quick turnaround following an overtime battle in Game 3, and the physical toll seemed obvious.<\/p>\n<p>But Smart wasn\u2019t buying that explanation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust a little lackadaisical from us,\u201d Smart added. \u201cShots weren\u2019t falling early, when we got to the rim, a lot of contact and weren\u2019t getting calls. So it played a part, but we\u2019ll be alright, it\u2019s part of it. We\u2019ve been playing our asses off for the last 3-4 games so we understand they came out and did their jobs. So just bring it back to L.A. and we\u2019ll see them there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The loss not only extended the series, but also gave Houston a surge of belief. With tensions rising, including on-court exchanges and multiple technical fouls, the edge between both sides is becoming increasingly clear.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foreverbet.com\/en-us\/sportsbook?utm_source=basketballforever&amp;utm_medium=sitearticle&amp;utm_ca%5B%E2%80%A6%5Dn=basketballforever500ph&amp;utm_term=SmartLakersFatigue&amp;lid=j0ytdho0wlyd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-69110\" src=\"https:\/\/basketballforever.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ForeverBet-BF-promotional-banner-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"730\" height=\"175\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/basketballforever.com\/2026\/04\/27\/victor-wembanyama-disappointed-with-nbas-concussion-protocol\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Victor Wembanyama \u2018Disappointed\u2019 With NBA\u2019s Concussion Protocol as Spurs Dominate<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/basketballforever.com\/2026\/04\/28\/marcus-smart-calls-out-costly-mistakes-as-lakers-slip-in-game-4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Lakers missed a golden chance to close out their first-round series, falling heavily to the Houston Rockets in Game four. But for Marcus Smart, the issue wasn\u2019t tired legs, it was something far more fixable. Turnovers proved to be the defining problem. The Lakers coughed the ball up 23 times, leading directly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}