With Anthony Davis spraining his ankle, the pressure was on LeBron James and Austin Reaves to carry the Los Angeles Lakers to a Christmas Day win over the Golden State Warriors. Things seemed to be in hand until Stephen Curry almost single-handedly brought the Warriors back, tying the game with a late 3-pointer with just seven seconds remaining.
But that was more than enough time left for Reaves, who would get to the rim and convert the game-winning layup with just one second left as the Lakers escaped with the victory. It was a great moment for Reaves, who will now always have that Christmas Day memory, but it turns out the play wasn’t even meant for him.
After the game, Reaves revealed that the play was drawn up for LeBron, but the Warriors denied him the ball, via Khobi Price of the Southern California News Group:
“Yeah, I mean to start off, the play was not for me. We were trying to Bron the ball at the top of the key, but both of Draymond took that away, I think Wiggins jumped it a little bit too, and then when I caught it, five seconds is a long time in basketball. The last thing you want to do is go too early, something happen, miss, go out of bounds and then you give Steph an opportunity to chuck one from from 85 feet and that’d be a horrible way to lose. So really just wanted to get the last shot, wanted to get a good look.”
The play being meant for LeBron is no surprise as he was excellent all night long, but of course everyone including the Warriors expected that and thus did everything possible to not let the Lakers superstar decide the game. But Reaves is never afraid of the moment and showed no hesitation when the ball was in his hands with the game on the line.
Most notable was Reaves’ patience as many players might immediately attack in that situation, but the Lakers guard took a step back to assess things before making his move. It not only allowed him to figure out the best way to attack, but also, as he hoped, didn’t give Curry and the Warriors any chance to respond.
Lakers’ Austin Reaves got emotional thinking of family after game-winner
That game-winning layup gave Austin Reaves 26 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 10 assists for a Christmas Day triple-double in the Lakers win. It was a huge moment for Reaves and one that brought a bit of unexpected emotion from the young guard in the immediate aftermath.
Reaves said that he nearly teared up at the scorer’s table after the win, noting that he knew his family was all together watching him and that really means a lot to him.
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