The Los Angeles Lakers returned home on Friday following a disappointing road trip that saw the team go 1-4 after a 3-0 start. The Lakers snapped their two-game losing streak, defeating the Philadelphia 76ers, 116-106, with head coach JJ Redick making a lineup change bringing D’Angelo Russell off the bench. Helping lead the Lakers to the win was Austin Reaves, who revealed postgame that JJ Redick had challenged him to raise his effort level.
“I met with JJ before in film, and he challenged me. . .he showed me a couple of clips and instances where I wasn’t competing the way I should have. That’s not like me, and I want to be coached like that,” Reaves told reporters after the game. “We have a group that wants to be coached like that. So when he comes in and basically puts it on the screen, you can’t hide from it.”
Against the 76ers, Austin Reaves was the Lakers’ second leading scorer with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 6-of-10 shooting from the three-point line. He also added six rebounds, seven assists and one blocked shot.
Through the Lakers’ first nine games of the season, Reaves has been averaging 17.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.4 steals with splits of 47.1 percent shooting from the field, 37.5 percent shooting from the three-point line and 77.4 percent shooting from the free-throw line. His points, rebounds and steals are all career highs.
Austin Reaves’ role with Lakers
With Russell moving to the bench for the time being, that pencils in Reaves as the Lakers’ primary ball-handler and playmaker. It’s a role that he’s very capable of doing, having experience playing point guard going back to his college days.
And having Cam Reddish alongside him in the backcourt at shooting guard is beneficial in the sense that Reddish is able to take on the opposing team’s top perimeter scorer. That’s a job that has often fallen on Reaves going back to last season.
Back during media day, Reaves revealed that he had hit the weight room in the offseason to give him the ability to guard opposing scorers while maintaining the ability to be effective and efficient on the offensive end.
During the Lakers’ recent road trip, Reaves had been struggling with his shot from three-point range, but he was able to find the basket against the Sixers. Reaves shot a combined 11-38 (29 percent) from three-point range during the five-game trip, but knocked down six of his ten attempts (60 percent) on Friday.
“It feels good. My brother’s been texting me, wearing me out about why I’m missing shots. And he’s definitely asleep right now so when he wakes up I hope he’s happy with how I shot it,” Reaves said. “It’s a miss or make league. You’re gonna go through times where you feel like you can’t miss, and go through times where you feel like you can’t make one.”
Reaves has always been a pretty good three-point shooter during his four years in the NBA thus far. He holds a career average of 36.6 percent on four attempts per game.
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