Austin Reaves Focused On Getting Win For Lakers Amid Career Night
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Austin Reaves had a career-high 38 points on Friday night and the Los Angeles Lakers needed every bit of it to escape with a 102-101 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
Reaves did most of his scoring in the second half to keep the Lakers out in front. With Anthony Davis out of the lineup, someone other than LeBron James needed to step up and it was Reaves.
Despite the Lakers only winning by one though, Reaves was just happy that his career night came in a victory.
“Yeah, I mean, kind of like we talked about on the way over here, wasn’t a pretty game,” Reaves admitted. “We didn’t execute the way we really needed to. But you have so many games, it’s going to happen. And in those situations, you just got to figure out a way to win. You’re not like I said, playing the way you want to play it up to your standards as a group. You just had to find a way to win. And we did that.”
Reaves has taken on primary ball-handling duties for the Lakers in recent weeks and with that has come some big games, both as a scorer and playmaker. The 26-year-old believes one of his biggest strengths is his ability to do both depending on what is needed on a given night to get a win.
“I think one of my gifts is being able to feel out the game through the process of the game,” Reaves said. “Whatever that night needs, do that on that night. Against Miami, like you said, 14 assists. Rui had it going, Bron had it going, AD always has it going, Max was shooting it well, Gabe played well. Everybody was playing well and my thought process was getting them open looks. And then tonight, in the flow of the game, at least for me, you kind of feel what the game needs. In that fourth quarter, JJ wasn’t happy on the sideline as I’m sure you all could guess because we weren’t playing well. It was warranted. Me and Bron had a conversation at center court, just figuring out a way to win the game.
“We know it hasn’t been pretty, we know we’ve made a lot of mistakes. But the win in the win column, it doesn’t matter if it’s one or 60. It’s a win and that’s all that matters. So for me tonight, it was score it and get us there. Like I said, I feel like that’s one of my strengths, being able to read the game through the whole game.”
Reaves has always been one to put team success ahead of individual, but recent weeks have shown that him having big performances greatly increases the Lakers’ chances of winning.
Austin Reaves ‘stayed the course’ through struggles
With his new role, there have naturally been some growing pains for Austin Reaves along the way. He has kept his head down and continued working though and again, is just focused on helping the Lakers win.
“I just stayed the course. Basketball and golf are my safe place. I really enjoy both of those,” Reaves said. “But sometimes, when you aren’t playing well, you can think about the things that you could be doing better, or it’s this with everything in life, instead just continuing to do what you were doing and just trust in the process of the work that I put in, and nothing’s changed since I’ve been in the league.
“I’m in the gym getting extra shots, so I rely on that instead of letting that affect me a couple bad games. Everybody has them. It’s just like I said, it’s what can I do in those games to even help us be successful and to have a night like tonight, feels good, but winning is all that matters.”
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