Marcus Smart, Austin Reaves praise Deandre Ayton's performance
Marcus Smart and Austin Reaves loved what they saw from Deandre Ayton in the Lakers' first-round playoff series win over the Rockets.
It was thought that the Los Angeles Lakers had little, if any, chance of beating the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA playoffs. If they were to have any chance of doing so, Deandre Ayton would have to play some of the best basketball of his life against two-time All-Star Alperen Sengun. At times during the regular season, Ayton was scapegoated by fans and even the media because his scoring and field-goal attempts per game fell to career lows.
But against Houston, while he wasn't putting up big scoring numbers, he pounded the boards hard and played physical defense on Sengun. He was a major reason the Lakers got past Houston in six games. Veteran guard Marcus Smart, who himself made a sizable impact on the defensive end, gave Ayton some massive praise after L.
A. 's 98-78 Game 6 victory on Friday, per Lakers Nation . “For me, it’s DA,” Smart said about the difference in the series.
“He played his ass off tonight, excuse my language. But he was locked in from the start to the finish. He kept his composure and he really set the tone for us on the defense end and it allowed me to do what I do and everybody else to kind of galvanize and come together and do our thing.