With the Los Angeles Lakers trading D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets, more ball-handling, playmaking and scoring responsibilities have been placed on Austin Reaves.
He responded in a big way on Tuesday night in a losing effort to the Cleveland Cavaliers, tying his career-high with 35 points to go along with nine rebounds and 10 assists on 11-of-20 shooting.
Reaves is in the midst of the best stretch of his career since he’s seen his on-ball role increase, averaging 29 points, 8.3 rebounds and 12 assists on 50% shooting in his last three games.
After the loss to the Cavaliers, Reaves discussed his mindset when he has the ball in his hands.
“Just like I always say, play the game right away and just do what the game calls for,” Reaves said. “It’s scoring, score. If it’s not, make plays, but at the end of the day, just get us organized, get us in stuff that we need to get in, and obviously, get Bron and AD the ball because good things happen when that happens. So, just trying to be a floor general, a coach out there that they can trust to kind of run things through, and it’s not more, so just go make a play. It’s just get everybody organized, get us in good offense and defensively talk and all those little things.”
When it comes to taking on a bigger role for the Lakers, Reaves is excited and ready for the challenge.
“Yeah, I’m excited. I mean, it’s fun,” he said. “Like you said, I said, I’m gonna do, I’m gonna mess up, I’m gonna do dumb things, and I’m gonna learn from them. And that’s all I can really do. I’m kind of taking on this role on the fly, trading DLo, getting more on-ball reps.
“Like I said, I’m just some learning. It’s my fourth year in the league, and every day I can still learn something new. So I’m really excited to continue to learn to continue to grow, and become a better player.”
Reaves is putting up borderline All-Star numbers for the Lakers, averaging 18.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists on the season as he continues to get better each year of his young career.
Austin Reaves learning from mistakes
With this new role, mistakes are going to come for Austin Reaves. He talked about learning from them though so he can turn the page quickly and help lead the Lakers to wins.
“You make good plays. You make bad plays. Unfortunately, I came out and made some really bad plays,” Reaves admitted of his start to the Cavaliers loss. “And I knew that if we wanted to crawl our way back into it, give ourselves an opportunity, then I had to be better. And there’s no bigger critic of me than myself. I know when I do dumb things, and I did a couple of those early, but like I said, I can’t dwell on those things. You kind of kind of just flip the page and continue to play.”
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