Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves had been struggling to replicate the offensive production he had at the tail end of last season during the first four games of the 2023-24 campaign. But on Wednesday against the L.A. Clippers, he finally broke through with 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, the first and last figures being season highs.
It came in a comeback, overtime victory that snapped an 11-game losing streak against the Crypto.com Arena co-tenants. It also came when the Lakers needed it most, running an eight-man rotation with Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Jarred Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura out of the lineup. Reaves has always had a way of showing up when needed, and Wednesday was no exception.
Reaves spoke about breaking through his early slump and whether there was any concern from him about his lack of offensive production through four games.
“I haven’t played bad, I just haven’t made shots,” Reaves said. “And for me, like you said that there’s a million other things you can do on the court to help your team that not the normal fan, or someone that don’t really know basketball understands, and people pull up box scores, and they look or he went 2-for-15, it could be anybody and it’s, ‘Ah, he played trash.’ And that’s partially true. Because as an athlete, player, or anybody, you want to make shots. I hold myself to a high standard when it comes to that, but no athlete ever went through their whole career and played perfect. So you have these things happen, and you just got to figure out a way to get through it.”
The Lakers guard zoomed out to focus on not just his performance, but an impressive outing from a short-handed Lakers team to do what they did against the Clippers.
“I think it’s just perseverance. You know, like I’ve said many times, we have a very talented group and a bunch of guys that are very capable of doing a lot of things,” Reaves said. “We can be very versatile, we can show different lineups.
“You know, kind of like in the [Orlando] Magic game where we can finish big. We had C-Wood, Bron, AD. Those as our 3-4-5 just gives us different looks, and tonight, they went small, we went small. So, like I said, you know, we’ve got a group that can do multiple things and figure out stuff on the fly, and then Bron, AD and DLo especially score kept it somewhat of a game early, and then everybody else started to trickle in and help.”
Reaves didn’t make his first field goal until the third quarter — starting to heat up in the second half much like the rest of the Lakers. He leaned on some advice from a teammate, point guard D’Angelo Russell, to help fight through the early struggles.
“I mean, it felt really good to see a shot go in. Made my first one, and then I missed, like, six in a row. But making the baseline jumper or coming off the ball screen off a little jumper and then the baseline jumper just felt good. And shout out to DLo for constantly being in my ear this whole time. ‘Forget all of that. You’re a really good basketball player. Don’t let that slip. You go do what you’re supposed to do.’ And like I’ve said, you go through stretches like this, and you had to fight your way out. And that’s what I’m doing.”
Reaves is one of the most important players on the Lakers roster this season, both in terms of production and in being a leader as part of the main four in the starting lineup with Russell, LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
So as he goes, the team goes, and Wednesday’s breakthrough performance showed that in a number of ways.
Hachimura in concussion protocol
Lakers forward Rui Hachimura was placed in the NBA’s concussion protocol.
The concussion diagnosis was a surprise to fans as Hachimura was originally listed with a left eye contusion that had him day-to-day. It’s unclear when Hachimura suffered the injury, though now it seems he’s dealing with something much more serious than originally reported.
Before the game against the Clippers, Darvin Ham explained when Hachimura was diagnosed with a concussion.
“He continued to show symptoms and so he saw a specialist today and the team doctors. Just working through it and just take it one day at a time. He saw a specialist today and we’ll see what tomorrow looks like tomorrow.”
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