Marcus Smart has quietly been the Los Angeles Lakers' spark off the bench this season, but he's proved in the last two games against the Houston Rockets that he's not just a spark or a role player, he still has star play left in him.

He scored 15 points for the Lakers in their game one win over the Rockets and in game two on Tuesday night he changed the game. 

The Lakers took game two 101-94, this time with Kevin Durant on the court, but it was Smart that set the tone. He got hot in the first quarter and finished with 25 points, second-most on the team behind LeBron James, while shooting 8-13 from the field. 

Smart added two rebounds and seven assists to his scoring and showed off the kind of defense that made him a Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 with five steals, including a big steal on Durant late in the game. 

James is the obvious leader on the Lakers when it comes to playoff pedigree, but Smart is used to big moments himself. He's a 12-season veteran of the NBA and the first nine seasons of his career were spent as a crucial piece of the Boston Celtics, where he played 108 playoff games. 

Smart knows what it's like to perform in the biggest moments and to play with the pressure of one of the NBA's greatest and most historic franchises on your back. In 2026, he's traded one iconic NBA team for another and with the Lakers relying on him more than ever, he's delivered.

After leaving the Celtics, Smart spent a season-and-a-half with the Memphis Grizzlies before being traded to the Washington Wizards last season. On a national scale, he may have been going overlooked, but JJ Redick and the Lakers saw the power that Smart still had left in the tank when they signed him on.

Redick knew what Smart when he played against him and saw what Smart was still capable of when Redick had retired from the league. Now scouting him as a head coach, Redick knew what kind of reliable player he was getting.

"I knew that the moment and the stage, being a Laker, was not going to affect him," Redick said of Smart (via The Sporting Tribune). "It's easy to write somebody off as being older and not being as good, but all the analytics... were very favorable."

Smart has so far clearly proven why writing him off would be a mistake and that he still has playoff magic left in him, but the Lakers still have a series to win and Smart is looking like a major piece of any chance of Los Angeles success.