Even with LeBron James sitting out, the Los Angeles Lakers were able to pick up their fifth win in the last six games and sweep the season series over the Sacramento Kings. Anthony Davis was absolutely dominant, but Austin Reaves also stepped up in a huge way, finishing with 26 points and a career-high 16 assists in the victory.
Head coach JJ Redick leaned heavily on Reaves, particularly as a creator with LeBron out and the guard came through as he has done plenty of times throughout his career. His role on the team has increased under Redick and the Lakers coach spoke about his importance and what he brings to this team.
“Just the wiggle, the ability to touch the paint in the halfcourt and the ability to get two on the ball,” Redick said. “I mean, that’s huge for us. When we’re stagnant and slow and we can’t get two on the ball, we have a harder time touching the paint. We end up with a bad shot profile and we end up in a lot of butter situations. It’s just not how we want to play offense. Austin is vital to us being able to touch the paint. He’s vital to us being able to get into the blender. It was big time tonight from him. Big time.”
One thing Reaves has always been great at is getting into the paint and when a player can do that he attracts a lot of attention. Reaves’ ability to score for himself or create great looks for others is a major plus, and one that will be further enhanced after the Lakers traded away D’Angelo Russell over the weekend.
And Redick doesn’t think this performance against the Kings was a one-time thing. While he doesn’t expect 16 assists every night, he does believe that Reaves is imperative to the success of this team.
“I don’t think that tonight is like an aberration for what he can do when we’re fully healthy,” Redick added. I don’t view it that way. I think he is going to naturally take the second or third most shots most nights and he’s naturally gonna have the ball. He is the primary handler, he’s naturally gonna be involved in pick-and-rolls and dribble handoffs. When the season started, we would run, you know, an ATO or two four him every game. We kind of got away from that for a while and then he got hurt.
“But really just for us, a lot of the stuff we do to start halves and start quarters is all movement based and he’s a primary part of any movement stuff we do. So we started running more ATOs for him. The ATO to start the game, drained a 3. The ATO to start the third quarter, drained a 3. So I think the movement piece and then also being able to be the primary handler, I just think this is who he is to me. He can do this nightly. Maybe not 16 assists, I don’t want to set the bar that high for him. But efficient offense, playmaking, scoring, shooting, all of that.”
Reaves does so many things that contribute to winning and when he is needed to step up, he has done so consistently. More attention will be paid to him now, but his role was already increased and Redick will continue to empower Reaves to do even more that will ultimately help the Lakers continue to win.
Austin Reaves focused on creating advantage for himself and Lakers teammates
As JJ Redick noted, Austin Reaves’ ability to get in the paint is huge for the Lakers and Reaves himself spoke about being focused on creating an advantage either for himself or his teammates when he drives.
“Just create an advantage,” Reaves said after the win over the Kings. “If it’s for me, it’s for me. If it’s not, we want to get teams scrambling as much as possible,” he said. “That’s when I think that you could have really big quarter and games is when you get past your guy, swing into the corner, that guy X’s out, he swings into the wing, and he might drive that, and then backside, you get a three, you get a live to AD (Anthony Davis), so really just create an advantage.”
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