Lakers’ Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard hit with hefty fines for Game 4 comments

The Los Angeles Lakers got beaten fair and square by the Houston Rockets in Game 4 of their first-round series, with LA suffering its first defeat of the 2026 NBA playoffs in a 115-96 loss.

While the Lakers are still in a commanding position to say the least, as they are bringing a 3-1 series lead back to Crypto.com Arena, there was a sense of frustration that bubbled over for them towards the end of Game 4, with Marcus Smart and Luke Kennard expressing their strong opinions towards the officiating.

Both Smart and Kennard surely got their money’s worth; after all, the NBA just announced that the two Lakers guards were hit with fines worth a total of $60,000 for their Game 4 remarks.

Smart was hit with a $35,000 fine for “questioning the integrity of game officials” while Kennard was hit with a $25,000 fine for “directing inappropriate language toward game officials”.

The Rockets shot 10 more free throws than the Lakers did on Sunday, and LA must have felt as though they got the short end of the stick — especially after Deandre Ayton’s ejection that, arguably, was rather suspect.

While Ayton’s elbow did hit Alperen Sengun’s head, there was no evidence whatsoever that he wound up for the impact. Nonetheless, the officials still deemed the contact to be “unnecessary and excessive” to the point of warranting an ejection.

Be that as it may, the Lakers cannot lose their cool from here on out. The last thing they need is to give the Rockets an opening to come back in the series by exposing a vulnerability of theirs.

Smart, in particular, is one of the veterans the Lakers are relying on to hold down the fort amid Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves’ injuries, and they do not need him to let his emotions take over.

Game 5 of the Lakers-Rockets series will be on Wednesday at 10:00 PM E.T.

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