The Lakers showed up for Game 4 against the Rockets in Houston with a 3-0 lead and cement in their shoes. They looked like a team that was tired, that had been playing over its head in the first three games and, as Marcus Smart put it, “just didn’t have it” on Sunday. That takes nothing away from what they’ve managed to do so far, and it doesn’t mean they won’t have it in two days back at home in Game 5, but it did mean that by the end of Sunday’s matchup, they were feeling a bit chippy.
It did not help that the Lakers were on the raw end of two really bad calls from the officials. Deandre Ayton was called for a flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game, a call that even the Rockets conceded was not warranted. And in the final minutes of the game, amid a standard dead-ball, trash-talking tussle, referee James Williams whistled technical fouls and ejected two more players from the game, Aaron Holiday of the Rockets and Adou Thiero of the Lakers.
When the game was over, Smart was disgruntled, to say the least. He confronted Rockets players at midcourt, then went after Williams, too, pretty clearly registering his objection to Williams’ ejections.
Marcus Smart Found End of Game ‘Hilarious’
Smart was asked for his reaction to what happened and his view on the confrontation, and his initial response was one word: “Hilarious.”
He then expanded on that: “Very hilarious.”
But, generally speaking, Marcus Smart did feel the refereeing was off on the night, but did advocate for the Lakers to quickly put Game 4 behind them and to get to work on finishing the series in Game 5. That game will be at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night.
Said Smart: “Just a little bit of lackadaisical from us. Shots weren’t falling early, we was getting to the rim, a lot of contact, wasn’t getting the calls. It played a part, but will be alright. It’s part of it. We’ve been playing our (butts) off for the last three to four games. So, we understand, they came out, they did their jobs. We just bring it back to LA and we’ll see them there.”
Lakers JJ Redick: ‘I Did not Know What Was Happening’
Lakers coach JJ Redick also took note of the passion at the end of the game, and had a relatable analogy for the situation. He said he peeked in on it and looked at it as an argument one might find in a bar. There was a lot of passionate arguing, but signifying little.
Said Redick: “I don’t know if you guys have ever, like, walked down a street—not that I have walked down Bourbon Street or Beal Street in Memphis much, but sometimes if you walk down those type of streets you see something going on inside one of the bars or clubs and you kind of want to just peek your head in. I did not know what was happening so I just kind of walked over there to peek my head in. Didn’t feel like anything was happening. So we left.”
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