Lakers’ Jake LaRavia shares defensive lessons from Marcus Smart – Orange County Register
DENVER — Jake LaRavia had a guru on the bench.
Then a second-year Memphis Grizzlies ahead, he listened carefully to Marcus Smart – who had been voted the NBA Defensive Player of the Year two years earlier – as he tried to achieve his footing within the league. LaRavia’s steals-per-game numbers, and his minutes, greater than doubled because the Grizzlies within the backside three of the Western Conference in 2023-2024. Smart, who performed in simply 25 video games for the Grizzlies due to a foot sprain and a partial tear in his finger, spoke to his then-21-year-old teammate, sharing what he might to assist LaRavia’s improvement.
Those lessons, LaRavia stated, have become tangible points of his private present skillset.
“(Smart) taught me a lot about my positioning,” LaRavia informed the Southern California News Group on Thursday in Denver. “When he wasn’t playing and I was playing, it was good, because he was just able to kind of teach me more about defensive positioning, hands, deflections, the best time to get steals, stuff like that.”
Fast ahead two years later, and Smart, LaRavia and trade-deadline acquisition Luke Kennard spherical out the Grizzlies-turned-Lakers on the 2025-26 roster. On Sunday, Lakers coach JJ Redick praised LaRavia, who has a steal in every of his final 4 video games.
“We knew that he would be disruptive in terms of steals and deflections,” Redick stated. “He’s been really good in terms of his physicality. And in terms of executing what we want, particularly off-ball, we talk about grabbing and holding all the time. He’s been really physical with that. He’s done, for the vast majority of the season, everything we’ve asked of him in terms of what his responsibilities are.”
On Tuesday, after the Lakers defeated the New Orleans Pelicansthanks partially to a defensive stand spurred by Smart (4 steals, three blocked photographs) – Redick spoke about how Smart’s defensive tenacity results in runs and forces opponents to name timeouts.
“He has starred in his role for what we need from him consistently throughout the year,” Redick stated of Smart. “He’s, I think, played great basketball for the last five, six weeks, and that starts at the defensive end.”
Redick, again on Feb. 20 earlier than the crew’s first sport following the All-Star break, stated that whether or not it is LaRavia or Smart on the court docket to start a sport within the beginning lineup, the defensive profiles of every participant assist to arrange which of his gamers will take the more durable defensive task. Smart, over his final 10 video games, leads the Lakers in steals (1.9 per sport), whereas rating second to backup heart Jaxson Hayes with a plus-minus of 6.6.
It’s no shock to LaRavia to see how Smart is offering the Lakers because the postseason approaches.
“He just brings energy every night,” LaRavia stated. “The hustle plays, like when he dives on the ball, when he gets those 50/50 balls, when he gets steals, when he gets stops. Like he just brings so much energy and tenacity to the defensive side, so we kind of all just rally behind him.”
