Lakers News: Austin Reaves Appreciates LeBron James & Luka Doncic Trusting Him For Final Shot
03/28/2025 01:58 PM
Just one night after pulling out a buzzer-beating win over the Indiana Pacers, the Los Angeles Lakers were the victim of an even more heartbreaking buzzer-beating loss to the Chicago Bulls. A late Austin Reaves layup nearly allowed the Lakers to escape a late-game collapse, but Josh Giddey would hit a half-court buzzer-beater to lift the Bulls to a shocking win.
The loss is even more painful for the Lakers as they were up 16 points heading into the fourth quarter and had a five-point lead with 12 seconds remaining. Unfortunately, an awful turnover from LeBron James allowed the Bulls to take the lead, before the final sequence occurred.
Afterwards, Reaves spoke on those final seconds of the game, simply tipping his hat to Giddey on making an amazing shot, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“We drew up a good play and got a good look, made it and then just wanted to keep the ball in front. You don’t want them to throw a ball to half to where they can get close to the 3-point line for a 3. We did a pretty good job of that, they threw it back to Giddey and he made a shot. We won on a buzzer-beater last night, tip your hat. He made a hell of a shot."
With both James and Luka Doncic struggling shooting from the field, it was Reaves who carried the offense, leading the Lakers with 30 points on 10-of-17 shooting. And he admitted it was a confidence boost to have the ball in his hands down the stretch over his two superstar teammates:
“A lot. Like you said, LeBron is arguably the greatest player ever and Luka is gonna go down as one of the best players to ever play as well. I’ve said it many times, I barely got my foot in the league and just trying to take advantage of all the opportunities. They trusted me in that moment and I just wanted to try to go be successful for them."
Reaves did everything he could to lift the Lakers to victory, but it simply wasn’t enough as Giddey just hit an unbelievable shot. One day earlier, the Lakers were the beneficiary of some last second good luck, but on this night it was the opposite.
JJ Redick describes Lakers loss to Bulls as ‘devastation’
To lose a game on a half-court buzzer-beater is such heartbreaker, but that was the case for the Lakers in Chicago and head coach JJ Redick didn’t mince words in talking about the loss.
Redick used ‘devastation’ to describe the loss to the Bulls and calling it a ‘hell of a way’ to lose a game while also crediting the Bulls for their unbelievable 3-point shooting in the fourth quarter to pull off the comeback.
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