Lakers get Marcus Smart, and his intangibles, back at the perfect time

As Marcus Smart walked to the Lakers’ podium for his first postgame media availability following the Lakers’ win over the Suns Friday, he made a statement that carried more weight than just the four words that came out of his mouth.“Feels like so long,” he said as he sat down before taking questions from reportersAnd it had been.Not just because Smart had been sidelined for nine games because of a right ankle contusion before making his return to the court on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.But because how much had changed for him and the Lakers over the previous three weeks. When Smart suffered the injury during the March 21 win over the Magic, the Lakers were putting the finishing touches on a season-best nine-game winning streak, their most consecutive wins in a season since 2019-20. Luka Doncic was in the midst of a stretch of play that earned him Western Conference Player of the Month for March as part of a push for league MVP.The Lakers had won 12 of 13 games.

They were coalescing in the ways they hoped throughout the season that they would. That wasn’t the team Smart returned to.Not only did the Lakers lose their winning streak with a loss in Detroit on March 23 in Smart’s first missed game because of the ankle injury, but they lost their star guards in Doncic and Austin Reaves to regular season-ending injuries. “It hurt us,” Smart said.“It hurt our morale.

It took us a little time to get ourselves back together, but we trust in one another.We talked through it, this is new to us as well, and we’re trying to figure it out together.

But we constantly are seeing that and doing what we’re supposed to do. “That means everybody has to step up their roles.Everybody has to step up their play.

Myself included.I might be playing more on both ends of the floor, just being that initiator, getting us in offense, finding guys, and then [finding] the right spots for myself as well.”It didn’t take Smart long to be in those right spots,...