With time winding down and the game tied, the Toronto Raptors sent a double-team at Austin Reaves, who had carried the Los Angeles Lakers in the second half on the road. Reaves went on to find LeBron James, who quickly attacked the basket with the Raptors’ defense now in scramble mode.
James could have looked for his own shot as he is still one of the best in the league when going downhill, and at just eight points a basket would have allowed for his double-digit scoring streak to continue. But with him drawing the help defender, LeBron instead whipped the ball to the corner where Rui Hachimura knocked down the wide-open 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Lakers to victory.
Many players would have taken the shot themselves, but that is what separates LeBron from everyone else. And after the game, Reaves tipped his hat to his Lakers teammate for always making the right play and caring more about winning than anything else, while also admitting his own mental mistake in the moment, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I ain’t gonna lie, I’m gonna throw myself under the bus here. We got the rebound and Bron tossed it to me and I’m dribbling up the court and I thought we were down one. And he was like ‘one shot’ and in my head I’m like ‘What? We’re down one’ and I looked up and it was 120-120. So that’s bad game awareness for myself. But as I’m dribbling over on the right side I hear their coach telling Scottie [Barnes] to fire or whatever they call it. I knew the whole time I was gonna take a couple dribbles baseline. They’re known to double when you turn your back so I was just trying to get Bron the ball in a situation that he’s been in a million times. And for all the people that’s killed him his whole career for making the right play, if he shot that one, they would’ve said to pass it. If he passes it they’re gonna say to shoot it. So you know you tip your hat to a guy that just cares about winning and making the right play. That’s what he’s done his whole career. Thankful for him. Obviously the 10-point streak ends, but I guarantee if you ask him, winning is more important than points.”
When your leader takes on that mindset of always making the right play and doing things the right way, it becomes much easier for the rest of the team to buy in to that as well. Reaves has spent his entire career alongside James with the Lakers so he has seen up close and personal everything that the 40-year-old does for his team.
The Lakers are at their best when they play for one another and LeBron finding Hachimura for the game-winner is the biggest piece of evidence to that mindset.
LeBron James believes it was ‘perfect way’ to end scoring streak
LeBron James scoring at least 10 points in 1,297 consecutive games is a record that likely will never be broken. If it had to come to an end though, James believes it did in the perfect way, passing to Rui Hachimura for a Lakers game-winner.
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