{"id":704341,"date":"2026-04-04T13:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/704341\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T13:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:06:14","slug":"lakers-guard-marcus-smart-could-be-nearing-a-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/704341\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers guard Marcus Smart could be nearing a return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just when the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> were starting to look like dark horse contenders in the Western Conference, they lost Luka Doncic indefinitely to a Grade 2 left hamstring strain<\/a>. At the very least, he will be out for the Lakers’ remaining five regular-season games, and depending on what happens with his recovery, he could very well be out until next season.<\/p>\n

It is a big blow for the team, but it may not be a fatal one if he’s able to return during the playoffs. Meanwhile, L.A. may be getting a key player back from injury very soon as it looks to lock down the third seed in the West.<\/p>\n

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Veteran guard Marcus Smart, who has missed the team’s last six games with an ankle injury, reportedly took part in an on-court workout on Friday and could be cleared to return for Sunday’s game at the Dallas Mavericks, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.<\/p>\n

Smart has been a big X-factor for the Lakers this season, and not only because of his defense. He has also given them a secondary ball-handler and facilitator, as well as someone who has brought resourcefulness and been a positive influence on and off the court. At times, he has even hit key, timely shots on offense.<\/p>\n

He is averaging 9.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.4 steals a game this season.<\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers guard Marcus Smart could be nearing a return<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just when the Los Angeles Lakers were starting to look like dark horse contenders in the Western Conference,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":704342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[3139,26152,128309,3141,3365,25873,1260,62,67,132,68,7184],"class_list":["post-704341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dave-mcmenamin","tag-jj-redick","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-marcus-smart","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-western-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116346591027243441","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}