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“We definitely expect their best shot tonight,” said veteran Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart of his team’s Saturday night home matchup with longtime rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers.
While it is not yet clear whether superstar forward LeBron James and star big man Anthony Davis will be able to suit up after the pair were listed on Friday night’s injury report as questionable with injuries to their lower extremities, the assumption seems to be that the pair of west coast juggernauts will grace the court to make the most of the always-intense meetings between these two old foes.
“We don’t expect anything less from those guys,” added the Flower Mound native, “We know we have to come out and be ready to go — they are coming out swinging.”
“A couple years ago with that Game 7 [of the 2018 East Finals] here with LeBron, he took us on and pretty much put the daggers in us himself. I just remember him on me late in the shot clock, I’m up in his grill and he takes a 30-footer fade-away with the shot clock running down. It just shows the type of player, and playmaker that he is, it doesn’t matter what moment of the game, he’s always going to make good plays.”
“We definitely are expecting their best punch, we’ve got to come out and give them ours,” explained Smart.
“Every time we play the Lakers, it doesn’t matter where you’re at; you still have the rivalry between the two iconic teams in each meeting, and for good reason,” he added.
“They’ve set a standard for both organizations of excellence, and so when these two teams meet up, it doesn’t matter where or when — it could be a preseason game, it could be a scrum, you’re definitely going to feel that intensity of the rivalry of those two teams.”
With a little luck, we’ll see some of that intensity tonight as a nearly-healthy Celtics squad looks to get back to winning against a Lakers team equally interested in erasing the memory of an unexpected road loss.
This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!
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