Surging Lakers showing willingness to get in the trenches

HOUSTON — As Austin Reaves was inside of the visitor’s locker room at Toyota Center, thinking about a response to explain the defensive effort required for the Lakers to beat the Rockets 100-92 on Monday night, a teammate a couple of lockers to his left chimed in. “Luka was locking s— up,” Luka Doncic quipped, of course, referring to himself. The same sentiment applied to the entire team.It took a team effort to hold the Rockets to 92 points, the fewest amount of points a team scored against the Lakers this season, with each stop mattering as the Lakers also struggled offensively.Their scoring total was the fewest amount of points they’ve had in a win, and marked just the third time in 21 instances this season they won a game after scoring fewer than 110 points. If Monday’s game was earlier in the season, or even a couple of months ago, the Lakers probably lose, allowing their offensive success to dictate their defensive effort and progress. That wasn’t the case Monday.“It shows that we’re willing to get in the trenches and grind it out, which we probably couldn’t say for us a couple months ago,” Marcus Smart said.“We want to show we can get in those trenches and we can do the things, those little dirty things to help us win such as taking a shot to the face, elbow to the face, being physical, never backing down.

So I’m very proud of us. “Obviously we got a long way to go.We got to turn around and do it again.

But that’s something we can build off of.”The result may not always be what it was against the Rockets: 35 second-half points allowed.Fourteen steals, which is tied for the second-most they’ve had in a game this season. Twenty-four turnovers forced, a season-high for the Lakers, including 17 in the second half. “We can be really good – we all know it,” Smart responded when asked how good the Lakers can be if they have defensive performances like Monday’s.

“Our offense is top of the top, very talented.So ...