Austin Reaves has seen a lot throughout his four seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers. Starting off as an undrafted player, Reaves has grown into one of the most important pieces of this team and has shined for this franchise on some of the biggest stages as well.
He has also seen some low points throughout his time with the franchise, including some really bad losses and there were some who thought Thursday night’s contest against the Portland Trail Blazers would be one of them. On the second night of a back-to-back, with Luka Doncic sitting out and against a Trail Blazers team that has a bunch of young, high-energy athletes, the Lakers could have came out and just laid down.
But that wasn’t the case as Reaves and, especially, LeBron James led the way to a huge road victory in Portland, a win that Reaves feels the Lakers of the previous couple seasons wouldn’t have come away with, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I think I can say this. I think in the past, especially in my first two years, maybe a little bit in my third year, a little bit last year, I don’t know if we would’ve won this game. I think in the past, young, athletic teams that play really, really hard you obviously have to match their physicality and pace and you’ve gotta stay poised through it all. And I feel like this year we’ve done a really good job of matching that intensity and also playing with IQ as well so I think that’s a major leap from what we’ve done in the past.”
Everything was set up for the Lakers to fail as the Trail Blazers have played very well as of late, particularly at home. But LeBron and Reaves combined for 72 points on the night and simply wouldn’t allow the Lakers to lose a third straight game.
A team can have all the talent, but if they aren’t willing to play hard every night they will be subject to disappointing losses. Reaves realizes that this Lakers team is different and if they can continue to play hard, while maximizing the talent they have, they can accomplish great things this season.
Lakers’ Austin Reaves calls out LeBron James haters
Austin Reaves finished with 32 points, but it was LeBron James turning in a ridiculous 40 points to lead the Lakers to victory in Portland. And afterwards, Reaves called out any LeBron haters still out there.
Reaves had nothing but praise for his Lakers teammate with what he continues to do at this stage of his career. He would add that anyone who still thinks LeBron has anything to prove at this point, is simply a Michael Jordan fan.
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