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Dave McMenaminDec 20, 2025, 02:48 PM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> guard Marcus Smart<\/a> was fined $35,000 for making an obscene gesture toward a game official at halftime of L.A.’s 143-135 win over the Utah Jazz<\/a> on Thursday, the league announced Saturday.<\/p>\n With the Lakers trailing 78-73 as the second quarter ended, Smart had a back-and-forth with one of the referees as he made his way off the court and flipped him the middle finger after the exchange.<\/p>\n Smart was previously fined $25,000 for flipping off a fan during the 2017 NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n Against Utah, Smart’s actions resulted in him being called for a technical foul — his third of the season — and the Jazz started the second half with the technical free throw before play began.<\/p>\n Smart redeemed himself in the fourth quarter, scoring nine of his 17 points — going 3-for-4 on 3-pointers — to help the Lakers secure the victory.<\/p>\n The 12-year veteran is averaging 10.6 points, 2.9 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 17 games with the Lakers this season, making 11 starts.<\/p>\n The Lakers will need him in the starting lineup again on Saturday against the LA Clippers, with three members of their regular starting unit out because of injury.<\/p>\n Guard Austin Reaves<\/a> will miss his third straight game with a left calf strain, center Deandre Ayton<\/a> will miss his second straight game with a sore left elbow and forward Rui Hachimura<\/a> was downgraded from questionable to out on Saturday morning because of right groin soreness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave McMenaminDec 20, 2025, 02:48 PM ET CloseLakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-358368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCovered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.<\/p>\n