The Los Angeles Lakers are in a rough part of their schedule as they have lost three straight games to kick off their road trip. Thursday night’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks was the start of a six-game in eight-night period, the most grueling portion of the schedule for any team this season.
To make matters worse, the Lakers are currently playing without their three frontcourt starters as LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes all deal with injuries.
After the Bucks game, Austin Reaves discussed how big of a challenge that is for the Lakers being without some key guys, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Yeah, I just think the room for error is very small with Bron, Jaxson and Rui out. Like you said, three starters that play a significant role for us. They do a lot for our team and I feel like the guys that have stepped up and got more minutes have played their ass off and done well, but we just gotta figure out a way to do more as a collective group. These are the times in the season that you’re tested and you gotta figure out a way to weather the storm. I have no doubt we’ll do that.”
Reaves knows that other teams have been through similar things though and the Lakers just need to fight through it and win some games:
“It’s just the nature of the league. I’m sure at some point, every team in the league goes through some type of adversity and has situations where they got a couple back-to-backs and not fully healthy and tank kind of running on empty. So it’s no different for us, we just gotta figure a way to like I said, weather the storm and win some games.”
Things don’t get any easier from here as the Lakers end their road trip against the Denver Nuggets on Friday, and they may be even more shorthanded in that one with it being the second night of a back-to-back.
Lakers guard Austin Reaves regaining rhythm offensively
The good news for Austin Reaves and the Lakers is despite the loss, he found a rhythm offensively in the second half and finished with 28 points, eight rebounds and three assists on 10-of-17 shooting.
Reaves had struggled the last few games since coming back from his own injury, so he was pleased to start to see some shots go in:
“I just saw a couple shots go in and kind of got in a little rhythm. The last couple games I haven’t shot it well and it’s good to see the ball go in the basket. But we didn’t do what we were supposed to do today.”
If the Lakers are gonna get back in the win column then they will need Reaves at his best during this upcoming stretch.
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