Tag: Austin Reaves

Austin Reaves on upcoming Lakers vs. Nuggets series: ‘We’re gonna win’

Lakers guard Austin Reaves seems to be sporting a supremely confident attitude ahead of the team’s playoff series against the Nuggets.

The Los Angeles Lakers will begin the 2024 NBA Playoffs on Saturday evening when they visit the defending world champion Denver Nuggets. It will be a rematch of last season’s Western Conference Finals when they got swept.

Not that many people feel L.A. has a real shot in this series. For it to win, a lot of things will have to go right, but for the Nuggets to win, they will simply have to keep doing what they have been doing since last spring.

Guard Austin Reaves actually played well in last year’s Western Conference Finals, averaging 21.3 points a game while shooting a blistering 56.0% from 3-point range on an ample volume of attempts. He’s also one of the Lakers’ most confident players, and he showed tons of confidence when he made a bold statement about this year’s rematch.

Via Heavy Sports:

“We’re gonna win,” Reaves told Heavy Sports in a one-on-one interview to promote his “Perfect 10” episode with Hotels.com. “If you don’t go in with that mentality, then what’s the point of going in?”

At the same time, he warned that his team will need to be very on-point in the fourth quarters of games.

“You got to be really good the fourth quarter team because they execute so well in the fourth quarter,” Reaves said of the Nuggets. “They don’t make mistakes and anytime you make a mistake in the fourth quarter, they capitalize on that.”

In last year’s series, the Lakers got thoroughly outplayed in the fourth quarters of the final three games. All three of those contests were decided in the final minutes when Denver went on several surges and the Lakers were unable to do anything in response.

If they control enough of the final minutes of each game this time around, perhaps they’ll have a chance of winning — at least an outside chance.

Watch: Austin Reaves serves up alley-oop pass to LeBron James

Early in the Lakers’ game versus the Cavaliers on Saturday, Austin Reaves and LeBron James teamed up on a spectacular play.

After a successful six-game road trip during which they won five contests, the Los Angeles Lakers returned home and hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers in a rare Saturday afternoon game.

It presented them with a golden opportunity to move up from ninth place in the Western Conference as the regular season winds down. Los Angeles entered Saturday’s game with a 44-33 record, the same mark as the eighth-place Sacramento Kings. It also came in just one game behind the New Orleans Pelicans, who are in seventh place.

The Purple and Gold looked pretty energetic to start the game. On one play, Austin Reaves teamed up with LeBron James on a spectacular alley-oop pass.

Reaves has been gradually racking up more assists as the season has wore on. In March, he averaged 6.6 dimes a game, which is his highest single-month average this season.

LeBron James talks about gaining trust in Austin Reaves on his podcast

What was the moment when LeBron James tested Austin Reaves and gained trust in the undrafted guard?

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.

“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.

Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves were unhappy with Lakers’ defense vs. Pacers

The Lakers beat the Pacers on Sunday despite giving up 145 points, and Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves said they simply need to be better.

The Los Angeles Lakers earned their third win in a row on Sunday by getting past the Indiana Pacers, 150-145. They led by as many as 19 points in the second half, but withstood a furious Indiana rally in the final minutes to improve to 39-32.

The bright spot was the fact Los Angeles scored 150 points, its highest scoring output since the 1986-87 season, even though D’Angelo Russell sat out due to illness. The downside was that, well, it gave up 145 points.

Anthony Davis was downright dominant with 36 points and 16 rebounds. When he was asked about his team scoring 150 points, he turned the attention to the defensive end of the floor.

“(We were) just terrible defensively,” Davis said. “They hit some shots toward the end, some deep 3s. We can do what we want offensively, as you can see tonight, but we have to be able to defend, especially when we’re up on a team like that. Don’t try to give them no life.

“But at this point in this season, a win is a win and we’ll take it but we have to learn from it as well.”

Guard Austin Reaves, who stepped up in Russell’s absence, agreed.

Via Lakers Nation:

“You never want to give up 145,” Reaves said. “They got hot late, I think with under a minute left they probably hit three or four 3s, maybe more.

“But we just got to be better on the ball, in rotations and really just collectively guard as a team. When we do that, you got AD back there making things tough in the paint, we’re a good defensive team or are defensive-minded.”

While the Lakers have been playing at an elite level offensively over the past two months, they have ranked near the bottom of the NBA in multiple defensive categories. They will need to step things up on that end of the court in order to reach the playoffs and do some real damage there.

Austin Reaves took being dunked on by Jalen Johnson in stride

On Monday against the Hawks, Lakers guard Austin Reaves got posterized by Jalen Johnson, but he didn’t seem to mind too much.

The Los Angeles Lakers got back on track, at least for the moment, with a much-needed 136-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. The win snapped a two-game losing slide and put them back into ninth place in the Western Conference.

However, early in the game, it didn’t look good for the Lakers. They gave up the first eight points and fell behind, 11-2, with 9:50 left in the first quarter.

On Atlanta’s very first possession of the game, Jalen Johnson, an emerging forward, ran out on a fast break and dunked over Austin Reaves when Reaves tried to draw a charging foul.

The Lakers guard was asked about the play afterward by Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times, and he didn’t seem to take it personally.

“I think that might be the first time I’ve ever been like, really dunked on,” Reaves said. “So I made it a really long time without being very athletic, picking my spots to get out of the way. Tried to take a charge. I don’t know, super athletic kid. And he got one. The longer I play the game, I’m sure it’s gonna happen again.

“So I ain’t too worried about it because kind of the whole sequence of that being the start, and then them kind of having that run. I’m sitting there like, [expletive], that’s what started it all, but we responded really well. And it just gives us the knowing if a team comes out like that, then we can, turn it around pretty quick.”

Reaves’ defensive shortcomings have often been exposed this season, but this was the first time he had been embarrassed in that fashion. Although he had a lackluster outing by scoring just 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting, he and his mates had the last laugh.

Watch: Austin Reaves steals inbounds pass, feeds LeBron James for dunk

Austin Reaves and LeBron James combined for a highlight play in the second quarter of Monday’s Lakers versus Hawks game.

The Los Angeles Lakers have lost two games in a row and three of their last five during a critical stretch, and they’re practically starving for wins right now. They sit 10th in the Western Conference, and there is an outside chance they will miss the play-in tournament.

They took the court on Monday against the Atlanta Hawks looking to rectify things, and after a disjointed start, they asserted themselves and opened a double-digit lead.

In the process of doing so, Austin Reaves and LeBron James combined for a highlight play. Reaves stole an inbounds pass and went behind the back to feed a cutting James for a dunk.

James, who scored 40 points in Saturday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors, led the way early on Monday with 12 first-quarter points.

Austin Reaves: Lakers must treat every game as a must-win game

Austin Reaves realizes the Lakers need a much greater sense of urgency than what they have shown.

The Los Angeles Lakers were swept in the season series against the Sacramento Kings when they lost, 120-107, to De’Aaron Fox’s crew on Wednesday. In doing so, they blew a golden opportunity to move up in the Western Conference standings and possibly avoid the play-in tournament.

As a result, they are in ninth place in the West with a 36-31 record, two full games behind the eighth-place Dallas Mavericks.

If the Lakers still have a shot at finishing sixth in the conference, it’s a slim one. Guard Austin Reaves, who was their only consistent offensive threat on Wednesday, said from here on out, they need to act as if every game is a must-win contest.

Via Lakers Nation:

“We just got to buckle down and treat every game as a must-win, basically just approach it like that. Put our best foot forward and try to win every game we play.”

All too often this season, the Purple and Gold have come out flat, especially against teams they should’ve beaten, and lost, often by sizable margins. It’s arguably the biggest reason they have a substantially worse record than what many expected at this point.

Reaves, however, wasn’t flat on Wednesday. He scored 28 points and hit seven 3-pointers. It was one of his best performances of the year.

Los Angeles will play its next four games at home, beginning with a matchup on Saturday against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, who are in 10th place in the West. The Warriors are one game behind L.A. in the standings, and a loss to them would drop L.A. into 10th, at least for the moment.

LeBron James dared D’Angelo Russell to shoot during a hot streak with a funny face and perfect pass

This was an awesome moment for the Lakers.

When he is in a groove on the court, there are few players tougher to stop than D’Angelo Russell.

The Los Angeles Lakers guard was having one of those stretches on Monday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. During the fourth quarter, Russell made two 3-pointers in back-to-back possessions. He clearly had a hot hand and had the ball in his hands once more.

Russell passed the ball to LeBron James on the perimeter but the NBA’s all-time leading scorer knew that his teammate was in the middle of a hot streak. James nearly immediately threw it back to Russell, who used a couple nasty dribbles before hitting yet another 3-pointer.

It was a great encapsulation of team chemistry for the Lakers, who celebrated the impressive shot from Russell.

While that was a fun moment for the group, perhaps the best part of it was not actually captured on the TV broadcast. Fortunately, however, a fan at the game provided a second camera angle of this possession.

In that video, you can see the facial expression that James made when he received the pass from Russell. He knew that it was Russell who needed to shoot it so he could have a third consecutive 3-pointer for the Lakers.

After the game, during his walk-off interview, Russell alluded to this moment when he said that his teammates find him when he is hot:

Lakers guard Austin Reaves also knew that James would pass it back:

“As soon as he got the ball, me and AD stood up. We knew it was going up even when he passed it. We knew Bron was gonna give it back to him.”

Russell ought to feel confident after performing so well against one of the best teams in the NBA.

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Austin Reaves may be reverting back to last season’s form

After being a little inconsistent the first half of this season, it looks like Austin Reaves is back to being the best version of himself.

In the opening weeks and months of the 2023-24 season, Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves’ play was up and down. He often struggled with his shooting, particularly his outside shooting, and he didn’t quite look like the standout he was last season.

There were whispers that perhaps he was a bit worn down after spending much of last summer with Team USA in the FIBA World Cup. Some even wondered if perhaps what he did last season was something of a fluke and he was merely regressing to his mean.

But in the last 14 games, Reaves has stepped up. During that stretch, he averaged 18.1 points and 6.7 assists a game while shooting 51.1% from the field and 41.8% from 3-point range. That is the type of efficiency he maintained throughout the 2022-23 campaign.

It’s no coincidence that L.A. won nine of those 14 contests and was third in points per game, second in offensive rating, fourth in assists and (believe it or not) fifth in 3-point shooting accuracy during that stretch.

While Reaves’ defense is still a work in progress, he has even shown signs of improving on that end of the floor. Watch him in action during Wednesday’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

This is the version of Reaves the Lakers need if they are to replicate last year’s late-season run.

Spencer Dinwiddie is already helping Austin Reaves to play better

A byproduct of Spencer Dinwiddie being a Laker is the fact that he’s already making life easier for Austin Reaves.

Last season, Austin Reaves was one of the NBA’s breakout studs. He quickly started to realize his potential in just his second season, and in doing so, he played a key role in helping the Los Angeles Lakers reach the Western Conference Finals.

It led to some predicting an All-Star selection or two for him in the near future. But this season, his efficiency has declined, while he has been exposed on the defensive end. The Lakers have played him quite a bit at point guard this season, something he never did last season, and it became clear that he isn’t a natural point guard.

But two weeks ago, they signed guard Spencer Dinwiddie from the buyout market. Dinwiddie is a natural ball-handling and facilitating guard, and it was projected that he would make life easier for Reaves in particular.

While Dinwiddie is still getting his feet wet as a member of the Purple and Gold, he has allowed Reaves to benefit from his presence.

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT, a physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach who is a huge Lakers fan (and has his own YouTube channel), explained how Reaves has been aided by the team’s newest addition.