EL SEGUNDO, Calif. \u2014 There were no visible signs of added emotion on the eve of the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 NBA Cup quarterfinal against the San Antonio Spurs, no extra edge from a single-elimination game, no open desire to earn more prize money or add more hardware to the trophy case.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure it feels different to some people,\u201d Marcus Smart said, \u201cbut to me, it\u2019s another game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCool court,\u201d Deandre Ayton said, sort of flatly.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not exactly the sentiment the NBA had hoped to cultivate with this in-season competition, now in Year 3, but Ayton and Smart can be forgiven if the competitive rush from the NBA Cup isn\u2019t driving them.<\/p>\n
To be fair, they\u2019ve been feeling that buzz simply by being Lakers.<\/p>\n
For a pair of players who have tasted winning \u2014 Smart with the Boston Celtics and Ayton with the Phoenix Suns \u2014 the return to those standards in Los Angeles has been inspiring enough. From the future Hall of Famers on the roster to the names and numbers of the Hall of Famers who have played for the franchise before, Ayton said championship motivation is a daily thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing here in this atmosphere \u2026 winning speaks for itself,\u201d he said. \u201cJust the names around here. It\u2019s motivating. Seeing where we are in the season, why not us?\u201d<\/p>\n
The only championship in the short-term focus is the NBA Cup, which the Lakers are three wins away from. It\u2019s not why Ayton or Smart joined the Lakers, but it is representative of the work the team has done to date. Through the first quarter of the season, Los Angeles has the second-best record in the West despite injuries that have disrupted its continuity.<\/p>\n
During Smart\u2019s absence over the last six games, the team has the sixth-worst defense in the NBA \u2014 a small but not insignificant dip. JJ Redick called Smart the Lakers\u2019 primary tone-setter with his defensive physicality, and with De\u2019Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle and the Spurs in the way of the Cup semis, Smart\u2019s return from a back injury is just in time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve gotten a great version of him when he\u2019s been healthy and on the court,\u201d Redick said. \u201cWe just gotta continue to, in some ways, integrate him. And now that we\u2019re trying to integrate LeBron, it\u2019s integrating (Smart too). And he can offer a lot for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lakers, in turn, have a lot to offer Smart \u2014 namely the chance to play for things that matter in ways they did during his time in Boston, as opposed to his time with the Memphis Grizzlies and Washington Wizards.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing from Boston for nine years and the tradition there, and the things that I\u2019ve accomplished there, and (then) you kind of get shipped off to where you\u2019re not in the spotlight anymore,\u201d Smart said. \u201cThe games, in a sense, don\u2019t matter as much or you\u2019re not really playing for anything. You kind of get in a dull moment in your life where you just kind of start questioning things. And then you come and realize that tradition again with another organization. And the things that they bring. And the effort that they bring on the court. And you\u2019re like, damn, I really want to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ayton feels similarly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got LeBron and Luka (Don\u010di\u0107). I feel like that every day,\u201d he said of the Lakers\u2019 chances to win. \u201cComing into practice, taking care of the little things even when you\u2019re tired, just getting your lifts in and getting some cardio in and even when the coach gives us a good practice and we\u2019re out competing and getting up shots up after practice. And, yeah, I think we have a shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have some Hall of Famers on the team that really want to win, and they make that very vocal that they want to win. So you\u2019re gonna have to hold your end to be a part of the puzzle so you can fit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL SEGUNDO, Calif. \u2014 There were no visible signs of added emotion on the eve of the Los…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1055,355,99],"class_list":["post-341004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}