One of the biggest reasons the Los Angeles Lakers have exceeded expectations so far this season has been the leap of Austin Reaves into a legit All-Star caliber player. Alongside Luka Doncic and LeBron James, Reaves has given the Lakers a star trio that can rival any in the league.
While James has gotten his legs under him after missing the first 14 games of the season, Reaves has continued to star for the Lakers. But on Sunday against the Philadelphia 76ers, it was Reaves putting forth his worst performance of the year, and LeBron taking over late to lead the Lakers to victory.
And afterwards, Reaves had nothing but praise for James still being able to take over games while adding that if he had played better, the Lakers might’ve won by more, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“He was awesome. Thank God for him because I was [laughs]… he was really good tonight. He was great, Luka was great, that’s a great team win against a good team. If I could’ve played just a little better we would’ve maybe won by a little more, but a good trip 2-1. Like I said, that’s a good team and he’s done that so many times too so once you see that, once you see him get a couple 3s to fall. I think I got a rebound and I was like, ‘Please take the ball. This is definitely your time to go get us a win.’”
Reaves’ 11 points and 3-of-16 shooting from the field were both his lowest marks of the year. Some may point to him shouldering so much of the load in the Lakers’ past two games as wearing him out against the 76ers, but he wasn’t willing to use that as an excuse:
“Honestly, yeah I’m tired, but I’ve been tired a lot so I don’t think I can blame that. Honestly a lot of the shots felt good. Got to my spots, they just didn’t go in.”
Furthermore, Reaves pointed to the Lakers’ offense as a whole being good enough that they can overcome when he plays poorly as he did on this night:
“I think that’s the beautiful thing about our team is, and it’s not even just us three. DA was a monster tonight, 7-of-7 from the field, Rui made big shots, Gabe made a couple big shots. We have a lot of guys that if you get good looks, they can knock them down. But then you obviously have Luka, Bron and sometimes myself that can make a little tougher shots. And when you have an offense that can generate a lot of points then yeah, I can play really bad, not really bad. I’ll be a little easier on myself. I didn’t play great and we can still get a win.”
As Reaves noted, both Ayton and Hachimura were great for the Lakers in Philadelphia. And the team has gotten big nights from the likes of Gabe Vincent, Jake LaRavia, Marcus Smart and others as well throughout the season. But with three stars and solid role players, the Lakers are able to survive a bad night from Reaves which has been few and far between this season.
Gabe Vincent calls Austin Reaves Lakers’ spark all season
Even though Austin Reaves was off against the 76ers, he has been absolutely massive for the Lakers all season long and Gabe Vincent recently referred to him as the “spark” for the team.
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