Last season was a big coming-out party for Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves. The undrafted Arkansas native had shown some promise the previous year as a rookie, but he blossomed big time during the 2022-23 campaign.
He averaged 13 points while shooting 52.9% from the field, 39.8% from 3-point range and 86.4% from the free-throw line in the regular season. Then in the playoffs, he increased his production and 3-point accuracy while helping L.A. get to the Western Conference finals.
Reaves started the playoffs with a bang by scoring 23 points in Game 1 of the first round versus the Memphis Grizzlies. Fourteen of those points came in the fourth quarter with the outcome hanging in the balance, which led to his viral “I’m HIM!” moment.
LeBron James said on his new podcast “Mind the Game” that it was the moment he knew he could trust Reaves.
.@KingJames talks about his trust in Austin Reaves in Episode 2 of Mind the Game 👇 pic.twitter.com/N2JxtLas5A
— Mind the Game (@mindthegamepod) March 28, 2024
“It was either Game 1 or Game 2, where in the fourth quarter, (I was) just like, ‘AR, go win it for us.’ … And I felt like if I could get AR and instill AR and that confidence in that fourth quarter to make plays and win that game, it was just going to pay dividends for the rest of my time with him and the rest of his time when I’m not with him.”
After a somewhat uneven first half of the season, Reaves has been shooting a high percentage over the last two months while averaging 18.3 points in his last 25 games coming into Friday. He has stepped up in the assists department, and he had a triple-double on Tuesday to lead the Lakers to an improbable win over the Milwaukee Bucks in two overtimes without James.