{"id":119495,"date":"2026-05-01T03:17:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T03:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/mistakes-cost-lakers-as-marcus-smart-owns-game-5-collapse\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T03:17:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T03:17:45","slug":"mistakes-cost-lakers-as-marcus-smart-owns-game-5-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/mistakes-cost-lakers-as-marcus-smart-owns-game-5-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Mistakes Cost Lakers as Marcus Smart Owns Game 5 Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Los Angeles Lakers missed a golden opportunity to close out their first-round series against the Houston Rockets in Game 5, falling 99-93 in a performance defined by one glaring issue: turnovers, and Marcus Smart took accountability.<\/p>\n

Despite holding Houston to under one hundred points, the Lakers repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with careless ball handling, finishing with 15 turnovers that directly fueled the Rockets\u2019 transition offense.<\/p>\n

No player felt that weight more than Smart, who turned the ball over six times in a night he didn\u2019t shy away from taking responsibility for.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking care of the basketball,\u201d Smart said<\/a> after the loss. \u201cWe\u2019ve been through this. We understand this team and how they play and they\u2019re very aggressive and we gotta take care of the basketball. Myself, I had six turnovers and that\u2019s unacceptable for me. Especially with only two assists, especially against this team. We definitely gotta take care of the ball, we gotta do a better job all of us, collectively, and that\u2019ll help us for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s defensive identity has been built all season around pressure and physicality, and it showed again when it mattered most.<\/p>\n

The Rockets consistently disrupted passing lanes and forced rushed decisions, something Smart admitted the Lakers were fully prepared for, but failed to execute against.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what it is. We just gotta make shots,\u201d Smart added. \u201cWe got guys doing things and we\u2019re not giving ourselves a chance by turning the ball over which we can\u2019t get a shot up on the rim because of that. And that hurts anybody no matter how good you are offensively, if you can\u2019t get a shot up on the rim that\u2019s always gonna hurt. But yeah, we know what it takes. We got good plays. The game plan is right, the coaching staff is doing a good job of putting us in the positions. We gotta go out there and capitalize on the plays that we are and make the best of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Joel Embiid Takes Over as Sixers Lock Down Celtics to Stay Alive<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Los Angeles Lakers missed a golden opportunity to close out their first-round series against the Houston Rockets in Game 5, falling 99-93 in a performance defined by one glaring issue: turnovers, and Marcus Smart took accountability. Despite holding Houston to under one hundred points, the Lakers repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with careless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119496,"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\/119495"}],"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=119495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}