Austin Reaves has steadily risen up the NBA ranks and should now be considered a star on a Los Angeles Lakers team that also features Luka Doncic and LeBron James.
Reaves had already taken a leap the season prior, but the 2025-26 season represents his best campaign yet as he’s been one of the best offensive players in the league by almost every metric.
The budding star guard put on a show in the Lakers’ recent win against the L.A. Clippers, dropping 31 points with most of it coming in the fourth quarter.
Doncic and James also had huge scoring nights and Reaves attributed all of their success to playing basketball the correct way.
“We just played the right way, took open shots, just stuck to schemes and got the ball where we wanted to get it and made shots,” Reaves said.
He added that the team hasn’t done anything differently since James rejoined, but are simply making the right reads on the floor.
“No, I think you just pass to the open person,” Reaves said. “Especially with LeBron and Luka, they demand such a double team a lot of the game and that means someone is gonna be open and we can play 4-on-3 basketball. I think it’s just pass it to the open person and play basketball.”
Against the Clippers, the Lakers knocked down 13 of their 29 3-point attempts and Reaves acknowledged it felt good for him and the team to finally see them go down.
“Yeah, I think so. I think that’s the third time we’ve shot over 40% from 3. It feels good.”
Reaves also emphasized how the collective unselfishness from the stars makes it a fun environment for the Lakers to play in.
“I feel great,” he said. “Me and Bron have a great friendship, me and Luka deal with each other on the court. It’s fun though. We’ve been talking about it, we’ve got three guys that can make plays and are unselfish at the same time… If you’re in the right spot, everybody should eat off that so it’s really fun.”
By the looks of it, it does feel like the Lakers’ “Big 3” is starting to gel on the floor and the role players are fitting in right behind them. There’s still a lot of regular season left to go, but the purple and gold should be taken more seriously as a contender.
JJ Redick challenging Austin Reaves to step up as a leader
Head coach JJ Redick has done a great job of getting the most out of Austin Reaves and he’s now challenging his new star guard to step up as a leader despite LeBron James and Luka Doncoc both being on the team.
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