The Los Angeles Lakers have been playing their best basketball of late and looked to keep it going on Saturday afternoon when they hosted the Indiana Pacers.
JJ Redick’s team was significantly shorthanded, however, missing LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Mark Williams. That didn’t matter though as Austin Reaves led them to a 124-117 victory to improve to 31-19 on the year.
Reaves, who came into the game questionable due to an elbow contusion, got the scoring started for the Lakers with a reverse layup. He then had a four-point play and Gabe Vincent, who started in the place of James, also connected from deep to give L.A. a quick 19-9 lead.
The Lakers were locked in on both ends of the floor with Reaves and Vincent leading the way offensively. Two-way big man Trey Jemison III also provided good minutes off the bench and L.A. led 44-22 at the end of the first quarter.
L.A. was moving the ball well and getting everyone involved, which included Markieff Morris hitting a triple in his first game back with the team after being acquired along with Doncic.
Rui Hachimura got in on the action offensively, celebrating his 27th birthday in style. The Lakers were able to keep the momentum for the entirety of the first half until the last couple of minutes when the Pacers went on a little run to cut their deficit to 66-50 going into the locker room.
As has been the case a lot lately, the Lakers came out flat to start the third quarter and the Pacers quickly got their deficit to single digits.
In fact, the Laker lead got all the way down to four before some hustle plays by Dorian Finney-Smith and Jarred Vanderbilt got things back in order. After two putbacks by the latter, the lead was back to double digits.
Reaves continued his big day by getting to the paint for some easy buckets. Things got a little chippy at the end of the third quarter with Jemison pushing T.J. McConnell and being called for a technical, but the Lakers still took a 94-84 advantage into the fourth.
Reaves wasn’t done there as he drilled back-to-back triples to begin the fourth. He then had a steal and a dunk to give him a career-high 39 points. That put the Lakers up 15 with a few minutes to play. Indiana would eventually cut it to five, but L.A. had no issues closing out a fifth straight victory.
In what was a career night, Reaves finished with 45 points, six rebounds, seven assists and three steals for L.A.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers return to the court on Monday when they host the Utah Jazz, which could be the debuts of both Luka Doncic and Mark Williams.
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