LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Pau Gasol & More Reactions To Austin Reaves’ Game-Winner For Lakers

With LeBron James, Luka Doncic and others out, Austin Reaves has stepped up his game for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Earlier this week, he had a 51-point game and then followed it up with a 41-point performance. He looked to keep that going on the road on Wednesday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but the Lakers found themselves trailing by one in the final seconds after blowing a 20-point lead.

Reaves did not panic though and calmly drilled a game-winning floater as time expired, securing a 116-115 victory for the Lakers to improve their record to 3-2.

After the buzzer-beater, plenty of members of the Lakers and NBA family took to social media to celebrate Reaves, including James, Doncic, Pau Gasol, Magic Johnson, Jarred Vanderbilt, Josh Hart, Alex Caruso and Patrick Beverley:

Reaves did not have his best shooting night as he finished with 28 points on 9-of-24 shooting. He tied his career-high with 16 assists, however, getting his teammates involved before taking matters into his own hands on the final possession.

This week has been an incredible one for Reaves, and could be a sign of things to come for him in his fifth season with the Lakers, which should have people excited for when the team can get whole and make a run.

JJ Redick seeing leadership growth from Austin Reaves

With his co-stars out, Austin Reaves has stepped up as a leader for the Lakers and head coach JJ Redick has noticed his growth in that department.

“Yeah, I have,” Redick said when asked if he’s noticed Reaves being more vocal. “Just a great example of it, but they challenged that call in the fourth on the block. I think it was [Jerami] Grant that blocked it on DK [Dalton Knecht]. We just had set up a pretty simple baseline out-of-bounds play. That call had gotten overturned with 1.3 on the clock and he’s coming out of the timeout [saying], ‘DK, work your way in under, I’ll throw the lob over the top.’

“It’s just it’s simple stuff like that that I’m seeing again and again. Whether it’s on defense or offense, he’s been great in the huddles. Yesterday, [it was] just as connected as our huddles have been, player to player, during timeouts. So yeah, I see it constantly.”

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