With the Lakers 75% done with the regular season and the most important quarter beginning on Monday versus the Thunder, it’s a good time to reflect on where things stand.
The Lakers are currently tenth in the Western Conference but just percentage points behind the Warriors for ninth. Los Angeles has found a starting five that works and the rest of the roster seems to be in appropriate roles minus a few exceptions.
One player who started off shaky but now seems to be meeting expectations is Austin Reaves. He was the Lakers crown jewel in the summer getting buckets for America in the FIBA World Cup and entered the season with a starting spot in hand.
Things quickly turned sour though as he struggled on the court and was relegated to the bench. It took most of the first half of the year for him to find his groove but he did, won the starting job back and is coming off a career-high 14 assists game against the Denver Nuggets.
Jovan Buha of The Athletic had Reaves on his first podcast episode of “Buha’s Block” to talk about how he feels he’s handled things thrown at him this season.
“I think I’ve done a really good job this year of stepping into different roles at different times and kind of just taking the season in stride, honestly..I think just being able to adapt to as many situations as I think I get thrown into, I’ve done a really good job. Obviously, there’s aspects where I want to get better and where I wish I’d been better this year. But I feel like winning is the main thing and I don’t really care about all that other stuff. When it comes to points per game or assists, whatever it is, I don’t care about that. I’m trying to fill what we need as a group to be successful. I feel like I’ve done that fairly well.”
There’s a balance Reaves is figuring out between doing the role-player things that got him his stardom and growing into a viable scoring threat the team runs plays through in crunch time.
Earlier in the year, those shot attempts often felt forced and looked as such. Lately, he’s been a positive for the team and the best option available to start for the Lakers. As long as he continues to make the right decisions on the floor and gives his best effort on the defensive side of the ball, he will be an integral part of winning basketball.
