{"id":588021,"date":"2026-02-07T09:19:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/588021\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T09:19:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:19:35","slug":"marcus-smart-celebrates-las-unheralded-hero-in-win-vs-76ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/588021\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Smart \u2019celebrates\u2019 LA\u2019s unheralded hero in win vs. 76ers"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 When the dust settled and the comeback was complete, the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> grabbed their second consecutive win as they knocked off the visiting Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night. It was Austin Reaves dropping 33 points<\/a> albeit on a minutes restriction that helped turn the tide in the fourth quarter. But the Lakers\u2019 win wouldn\u2019t have been complete without Maxi Kleber<\/a>, and Marcus Smart<\/a> made sure to note that.<\/p>\n

Following the Lakers\u2019 come from behind win against the 76ers, Marcus Smart explained why the team made sure to celebrate Maxi Kleber\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the ultimate professional. There\u2019s a reason why Maxi\u2019s still in the league, still playing, and there\u2019s a reason why he\u2019s on this team with us,\u201d Smart said. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why we celebrate him the way we do because he comes in every day no matter what, and he gives that, whether it\u2019s in practice, whether it\u2019s in a game, whether he plays two minutes, whether he plays 20.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe enjoy watching Maxi because we know how hard he works and we know what he\u2019s going to give every night,\u201d Smart continued. \u201cThat\u2019s nothing of a surprise for us. We\u2019re just excited to see him out there getting a chance to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With reserve big man Jaxson Hayes suspended due to shoving the Washington Wizards\u2019 mascot during a game last week, Kleber was given the opportunity for backup center minutes. He responded with a strong overall game, finishing with four points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals in 26 minutes. He was a team-high plus-23<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All of Kleber\u2019s rebounds were on the offensive end, giving the Lakers extra possessions. And perhaps most importantly, he provided a solid defensive counter to 76ers star big man Joel Embiid in the fourth quarter. Lakers head coach JJ Redick opted to close the game with Kleber, playing him for the bulk of the final period.<\/p>\n

Although box score wise Kleber had a solid game, it was what didn\u2019t show up on the stat sheet that Redick believed he made the most impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaxi made a number of plays that don\u2019t necessarily show up on the box score. Had a Gortat [screen] on AR [Austin Reaves] in the first half, he had the Gortat to help close the game with LeBron\u2019s dunk down the middle. He just played great defense,\u201d Redick said. \u201cWhile Maxi scored some, I thought his containment when he switched on to [Tyrese] Maxey was really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kleber\u2019s 26 minutes were a season-high. His playing time has fluctuated throughout the season, but he\u2019s stayed ready and has helped in terms of leadership<\/a> even if he doesn\u2019t see the floor. Since being traded to the Lakers via the Luka Doncic deal, Kleber had dealt with unfortunate injury luck, but he\u2019s healthy now.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaxi, it doesn\u2019t matter if he\u2019s played and had a big impact, and the he\u2019s a DNP the next game, even when he was battling through some injuries to start the season, his spirit, his approach, his being a teammate and rooting for other people, it never changes,\u201d Redick said. \u201cHe\u2019s just, for all our guys, he\u2019s an easy guy to root for.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season, Kleber has appeared in 25 games, including one start, at just about 11 minutes per game. He\u2019s averaged 2.0 points and 1.8 rebounds while shooting 37.8 percent from the field and 75 percent from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 When the dust settled and the comeback was complete, the Los Angeles Lakers grabbed their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,326,3000,6,2144],"class_list":{"0":"post-588021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-marcus-smart","18":"tag-maxi-kleber","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-reporting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116028609269042915","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}