{"id":717508,"date":"2026-04-25T05:15:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717508\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T05:15:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:15:38","slug":"marcus-smart-game-3-heroics-hit-epic-nba-playoff-numbers-not-seen-since-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717508\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Smart Game 3 heroics hit epic NBA Playoff numbers not seen since Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marcus Smart is the first player since Michael Jordan (1991) to drop 20 points, 10 assists, 5 steals, and 2 blocks in an NBA Playoff game.<\/p>\n<p>The Los Angeles Lakers, in an inspiring and tremendous fashion, have prevailed in Houston to cool down the Rockets with a cathartic 112-108 Game 3 overtime win.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tLos Angeles Lakers \/ Schedule<\/p>\n<p>While it was LeBron James who spearheaded the Lakers&#8217; epic victory to go up with a commanding 3-0 against the Rockets, Marcus Smart is the team&#8217;s absolute X-factor throughout the course of Friday evening.<\/p>\n<p>On both ends, Smart stepped up when it mattered the most. He scored when needed, committed hustle plays and delivered defensive clampdowns to secure the Lakers&#8217; momentum.<\/p>\n<p>Across 39 minutes, the veteran guard finished with 21 points in 5-of-9 shooting with 10 assists, four rebounds, five steals and two blocks.<\/p>\n<p>The stat line he posted marks the first time a player in the NBA Playoffs has done so since Michael Jordan registered similar numbers in 1991.<\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/a\/status\/2047874002866028556\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">With Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique) still not playing, Smart embraced being the hero for the Lakers since both stars went down. As a result, LA is now one win away from making it to the Conference Semifinals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Lakers expect another big game from the former Defensive Player of the Year as they will aim to officially sweep the Rockets in Game 4 on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>                                                    <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/plus?utm_source=basketnews_com&amp;utm_medium=bn_plus&amp;utm_id=UA-259273-31&amp;utm_campaign=banners_free_content_for_not_members_bottom_2\" class=\"banners_paid_content_info_block_white banners-paid-content-info-block-white\" data-google-interstitial=\"false\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                                                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bn-plus-img img-fluid\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bn-plus.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                            Subscribe to BN+ and get access to exclusive content.<\/p>\n<p>                                                            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                                If you like our content, please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=basketnews.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a> and add us as your preferred source. It helps us a lot, and we are committed to delivering you the very latest basketball news.<\/p>\n<p>                                            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marcus Smart is the first player since Michael Jordan (1991) to drop 20 points, 10 assists, 5 steals,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-717508","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-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717508","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=717508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}