The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Phoenix Suns in their preseason finale, but the starters did mange to put on some good tape for the 2023-24 season.
Darvin Ham gave the starters a little more run, and they did well on both ends before letting their foot off the gas pedal in the third quarter. Although it was disappointing to see them end the preseason a low note, there’s optimism that they’ll look better when the games begin to matter.
Austin Reaves was impressive during the exhibition slate and looks ready to command more of the offense. Defensively he also had some bright moments, though he got taken advantage of by Kevin Durant when he was switched onto him.
Reaves discussed what it was like to guard Durant and quipped how there wasn’t much he could do with Durant even issuing a playfull warning to L.A., via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“Anytime you have someone as talented as KD on the court, it’s cool for me to just watch in the moment. He has a midrange fadeaway on me and they ended the half and then did the too small (gesture). We was talking during one of the timeouts and he hold JO (Jordan Ott) one of the coaches, he was like, ‘Don’t have him guard me next week!’ “I was like, ‘Bro, what am I supposed to do?’
“There’s nobody who’s done this…I don’t know how many years he’s been in the league. You can’t block it. You can’t really contest cause he leans back in his natural shooting motion and he kicks his leg out a little bit, so if you really contest it’s a foul. It’s a problem. But like I said, anytime you share the floor with someone of that caliber and then obviously going to war every night with Bron it’s just good for the game for them two to be back on the court together. They’ve competed against each other in Finals for a long time now, so you gotta appreciate those moments cause both of them won’t play forever.”
There really aren’t many players that can credibly contest Durant’s jumper, though Reaves did his best to at least stay close. Hopefully Los Angeles has a better shot of slowing him down next Thursday when they match up with Phoenix again.
Austin Reaves feeling great and comfortable going into 2023-24 season
Reaves hasn’t had much of a break as he went from playing for Team USA to going into training camp and preseason. However, the 25-year-old guard said he’s feeling good and comfortable with where he’s at before the start of the regular season.
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