Without LeBron James and Luka Doncic in the lineup, Austin Reaves knew he had to step up on Saturday afternoon if the Los Angeles Lakers were gonna beat the Indiana Pacers.
Reaves came into the game questionable himself with a left elbow contusion, but he was able to give it a go. Not only was he able to play, but Reaves stepped up as the Lakers needed him to and put forth arguably the best performance of his entire career.
In the Lakers’ fifth straight win, Reaves had a career-high 45 points to go along with seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals on 14-of-26 shooting and 4-for-9 from deep.
The Lakers have been playing their best basketball recently and Reaves has been a catalyst in that, so much so that his head coach JJ Redick made a bold claim after the win over Indiana.
“I think he’s been as important as any player on our team,” Redick said. “When he was out with his glute, back from the fall, that sort of locked his body up. It was very noticeable that he was out of the lineup. And sometimes it’s noticeable when he’s not on the court when he’s just sitting on the bench. I mean, he really gives us a lot of pop. And for him to play in that game tonight, [Pascal] Siakam is an All-Star this year. [Tyrese] Halliburton has been an All-Star. Felt like he was the best player on the floor tonight, and that says a lot. He showed up in a big-time way.”
Redick went on to further expand on Reaves’ value to the Lakers.
“I can explain his value. Sure,” he started. “He’s a guy that could play on an off-ball, can score the basketball, can shoot threes. Get the paint. Create for his teammates. Competes his ass off defensively. Anybody will be happy to have him on their team.”
Reaves has improved in each of his four seasons with the Lakers, taking a large leap this year to become a borderline star in the NBA. According to Redick though, the biggest growth he has seen from Reaves has nothing to do with his skillset.
“I think the biggest growth for him is his leadership. That is something I challenged him on,” Redick said. “It is something that he wants. He wants that responsibility, and he has accepted it. He has embraced the challenge. I joked with him before the game, I said, “did Bron [LeBron James] talk to you?” He said, “Bron called me last night, told me he is going to be out.” I said, “we are probably going to need a 38-8-8 game from you.” 45-7-7 will do. That will do. He played awesome.”
Austin Reaves: ‘Surreal’ to join Lakers greats
Austin Reaves’ 45-7-7 performance had only been done by a few players in Lakers history, including Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. After the game, Reaves spoke about how special it is to now be in that group.
“I don’t want to get fined or anything, but it’s just it’s surreal, because, like you said, I grew up a Kobe [Bryant] fan. Huge Kobe fan, so I was automatically a Laker fan,” Reaves said. “So just to be able to put the uniform on and go out there and compete, and then, like said, to have a couple of those games to where my name’s in with those guys is special, something that I won’t take for granted. But, yeah, looks weird when you see my name up there.”
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