The Los Angeles Lakers have seemingly shocked the world by winning the first three games of their first-round NBA playoff series against the Houston Rockets despite being without the injured Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. On Friday, they claimed a gritty 112-108 overtime Game 3 win in Houston, even though they were down by six points with under 30 seconds to go in regulation.
Now, they will have the opportunity to sweep the Rockets, something that seemed extremely unlikely and just about impossible when the series started. The Rockets will surely come out like wounded animals in Game 4 on Sunday, and Kevin Durant is expected back after sitting out Game 3 due to a sprained ankle.
Veteran guard Marcus Smart, who keyed L.A.’s Game 3 win in many ways, said that he and his teammates have to have a killer instinct in Game 4, via Lakers Nation.
“For us, we’re just trying to have that killer mentality right now. We got them on the ropes and it’s our job to try to finish and their job to fight back. That’s been JJ’s motto all year, bend don’t break. I think we really took that to head for us, we lived it, instilled it in us, and you see that the way we played these three games. But we gotta be like a lion. We gotta have that killer instinct. We got them on the ground, we just gotta finish them off and keep our foot on their neck.”
The Lakers are reportedly expected to get Reaves back for Game 4. Reaves, who sustained an oblique strain on April 2 and has been out since, was listed as questionable for Friday’s contest, but the decision was made prior to the opening tip to hold him out.
If the Lakers don’t finish the series on Sunday, they will have three full days to prepare for Game 5, which will take place back home at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Marcus Smart on Lakers’ mentality for Game 4
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
