{"id":119891,"date":"2026-05-06T04:11:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/marcus-smart-earning-major-praise-from-deandre-ayton\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T04:11:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:11:54","slug":"marcus-smart-earning-major-praise-from-deandre-ayton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/marcus-smart-earning-major-praise-from-deandre-ayton\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Smart Earning Major Praise From Deandre Ayton"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Marcus Smart arrived in Los Angeles with questions surrounding what he still had left in the tank.<\/p>\n

Less than a year later, the veteran guard has become one of the emotional anchors behind the Lakers\u2019 playoff run.<\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s practice, Lakers center Deandre Ayton spoke glowingly about Smart\u2019s impact on the team, praising the former Defensive Player of the Year for the leadership and intensity he has brought to the locker room throughout the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarcus is a true leader,\u201d Ayton said<\/a>. \u201cBesides Bron, Luka or AR, Marcus is the guy with the grit. When we feel discombobulated, he tries to be that guy, he\u2019ll put his arms around me, some of the younger guys. Whether or not it\u2019s coming down to the competitiveness, keeping that same consistent edge, Marcus tries to keep that level of intensity pretty high. And it\u2019s contagious, too. Just having that guy who always like he just smelled some salt and he\u2019s ready to go. It\u2019s contagious and we feed off of it as young guys. And we\u2019ve got his back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers brought in both Smart and Deandre Ayton on bargain deals last offseason after each player reached buyouts with their former teams.<\/p>\n

While Ayton helped stabilize the frontcourt following the blockbuster Luka Doncic trade, Smart quickly became invaluable on the defensive end while also emerging as one of the team\u2019s loudest voices internally.<\/p>\n

Smart played a massive role in helping keep the Lakers afloat when both Doncic and Austin Reaves missed time with Grade Two muscle strains earlier this season.<\/p>\n

Smart was equally quick to credit Ayton for stepping up in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s DA,\u201d Smart said about the difference in the series. \u201cHe played his ass off tonight, excuse my language. But he was locked in from the start to the finish. He kept his composure and he really set the tone for us on the defense end and it allowed me to do what I do and everybody else to kind of galvanize and come together and do our thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Marcus Smart Calls Out NBA\u2019s Toughest Player to Cover<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marcus Smart arrived in Los Angeles with questions surrounding what he still had left in the tank. Less than a year later, the veteran guard has become one of the emotional anchors behind the Lakers\u2019 playoff run. After Monday\u2019s practice, Lakers center Deandre Ayton spoke glowingly about Smart\u2019s impact on the team, praising the former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119892,"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\/119891"}],"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=119891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}