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By Justin Grasso
Contributing Sports Writer
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The Los Angeles Lakers have been without their key offseason acquisition, Marcus Smart.
Lately, Smart is dealing with a back-related setback, which has forced him to miss consecutive games at this point.
Before the Lakers and the Phoenix Suns tipped off on Monday night, Lakers head coach JJ Redick explained what happened to Smart, and detailed the state of his injury.
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“He was feeling a little tightness, I guess it was three games ago now,” Redick told reporters. “Before the game, played through it, tightened up after, and was really tight the next day—the day before Thanksgiving.”
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The head coach confirmed that Smart had an MRI done to confirm the severity of the setback. Fortunately for the Lakers, everything came back clean.
“The imaging was unremarkable,” Redick continued. “It looked like a normal 11-year NBA veteran, you know? We’ve all gotten that MRI. So, we’re not concerned long-term. It’s a day-to-day thing. I’ve had a number of those week-to-week episodes during a stretch of my career when I played for the Clippers. It would just pop up, you would feel like you’re progressing, and it would plateau.”
Smart was last seen on the court for the Lakers during their November 25 game against the Clippers. He checked in for 20 minutes, producing seven points, three rebounds, and three assists off the bench.
The Lakers played games against the Dallas Mavericks and the New Orleans Pelicans without Smart in the mix. Monday’s action against Phoenix marked the third game in a row without him. While there is a growing concern about the state of Smart’s health, Redick left reporters with an optimistic picture on Monday.
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“We expect him to be back soon,” he finished. “It’s not a long-term thing.”
The Lakers will get Tuesday and Wednesday off before firing up another back-to-back set on Thursday. They’ll pay a visit to the Toronto Raptors before closing out with a matchup against Smart’s former franchise, the Boston Celtics. His status for those games remains up in the air.
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