The Los Angeles Lakers had chances on Monday night to get a win over the Detroit Pistons and move to 10-3 at home on the season. However, the young Pistons were not going to let the Lakers get away without a significant fight. They dialed up the aggression and physicality on defense and the Lakers were unable to respond.
It was Austin Reaves that felt the worst of it. They blitzed the young guard and forced him to cough up the ball six times. It was a game-high and double the amount of turnovers as any other individual Lakers player. He accounted for nearly one-third of the Lakers’ 20 turnovers.
And while turnovers and a lack of physicality are team-wide issues in games like Monday, Reaves took full responsibility for his part in that.
“I just think they are a really aggressive defensive team. Myself personally, I didn’t handle it well. I played not good. I know I gotta be better to help us be successful,” Reaves said.
Knowing that the Lakers are likely not going to outwork teams on the physical side, Reaves had a different way of counteracting teams that play this brand of basketball.
“I think you just gotta be smarter,” Reaves added. “You gotta think the game, you gotta know the game and execute what you’re trying to do. If they’re blitzing then you gotta be willing to get off the ball and just make the right play. If you do that then if they put two guys on the ball and you get off of it and you execute from there the right way, you should get an open shot. Like I said, I did a really bad job of that. Six turnovers, that’s unacceptable.”
One thing Reaves specifically wants to focus on is always leaning on his intelligence and not getting caught up in trying to match physicality or play outside of his comfort zone.
“Me as somebody that I feel like I have a good feel for the game and IQ of the game that I can’t get caught up in that. I know better,” he said. “Regardless of if I’m trying to be physical or not, it’s really just about making the right play. Regardless of what any defense is trying to do, I believe that there’s a right play to be made.
“If you’re getting blitzed, it might be the kick ahead. And then if the big’s rolling down and the low man’s gotta come over, it might be the skip (pass). But it’s really just about making the right play and you should always play hard and be physical, so I don’t really think that, I can speak for myself, I don’t think that should affect me at all. And tonight I guess I just wasn’t good.”
However Reaves chooses to counteract a team like the Pistons, he can’t give up another six turnovers in a game with any frequency. He is too important to what the Lakers do offensively to have those types of games regularly.
LeBron James wants Lakers to be more physical
On the flip side, LeBron James, who has done a remarkable job setting a physical tone over the course of his two-decade career, believes the Lakers need to do a better job of matching the physicality of their opponent. And while he thinks it’s largely mentality, there are things — setting harder screens and a triple threat stance — that they can do to work on it.
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