Austin Reaves is starting to look like the player he was early in the season, which could make the Lakers far more dangerous as the playoffs near, writes Melissa Rohlin of The California Post. Reaves’ scoring has been down since he returned from a strained left calf in early February, but he was aggressively looking for his shot in Sunday’s win over New York. He wound up with 25 points, marking just the third time he has reached the 20-point mark in the past 15 games.
“I think the messaging to him has just been to be himself,” coach JJ Redick said. “And I think sometimes when you miss time and there’s circumstances going on with the team that you can kind of be a little passive. … We want him to be aggressive. Every time he gets the ball, we want him to be aggressive and have a mentality to touch the paint.”
Reaves played like an All-Star as the season began, looking worthy of the five-year, $241MM contract that he’ll be eligible to collect this summer (if he declines his $14.9MM player option, as expected). If he can return to that level, the Lakers will be in position to challenge anyone in the West.
“Have fun,” he explained to reporters about his approach to the Sunday afternoon contest. “Woke up, early game, I was tired when I got here. I just told myself to have fun. I don’t feel like I’ve played bad, I just haven’t made a lot of shots. I feel like I’ve done a lot of other things well. Just continuing to play the game the right way, and I feel like good will come to good.”
There’s more on the Lakers:
- With LeBron James sidelined by elbow and foot issues, the Lakers turned up their defense in Sunday’s blowout win, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Defense has frequently been an issue for L.A. throughout the season, but the team was in top form against New York, holding the league’s third-most efficient offense to 42.7% from the field and forcing 19 turnovers. Redick singled out Reaves, Luka Doncic and Marcus Smart for their willingness to take charges. “That’s a sacrificial play,” Redick said. “You got to put your body on the line. Our guys have been motivated to do that all year.”
- Deandre Ayton‘s up-and-down play has been an issue, but the Lakers haven’t lost confidence in him, McMenamin tweets. He played 20 minutes on Sunday after sitting out most of the past two games with knee soreness. “We’re hopeful and optimistic that we’re going to get a consistent version of him down the stretch of the season,” Redick said.
- In a subscriber-only story, Benjamin Royer of The Orange County Register examines the connection that Doncic has formed with Jaxson Hayes and looks at how getting him easy baskets can unlock the rest of the Lakers’ offense.
Lakers showed up for Knicks. They remembered getting spanked in NYC. So you have to give them credit. Knicks not showing up till 4th Q is, I don’t know. Brown acting like it’s the 1st Q with 3 mins left in game. Is disappointing to say the least. Real disappointing to see Bridges play 27 mins. And score ZERO points. “5PicksBridges”
I have been waiting for almost two yrs now. To see Bridges become that third star on Knicks. To put up 22 a game. Brown was brought here cause his offense was suppose to help Bridges. The year is almost over. And I see Knicks still playing mostly like last year. So where is this new offense??
Less than 20 games left in season. And Celtics are going to take 2nd seed. This team lacks true leadership. Their coach is weak and their most expensive player is soft. And Bridges is just trying to fit in …….. not looking good for playoffs.
I like Bridges, but going scoreless on national TV in the Sunday showcase wase awful. So was Brunson with 7 TOs.
Brown isn’t trying to help Bridges, he’s playing a strength in numbers 10-11 player rotation with only 4 getting over 30 min/gm. Including injured McBride, the Knicks have 7 double figure scorers.
“I see Knicks still playing mostly like last year. So where is this new offense??”
I’ll tell you.
Last season, the Knicks were 27th in 3PAs/gm, this season they’re 9th shooting 5.1 more per game, and more importantly they’ve also increased their 3pt FG% from .369/8th to .373/4th.
Orebs are +1.9/gm going from 19th to 6th.
Last season, 5th in Ortg at 118.5. This season, 3rd at 119.2.
The offense hasn’t changed much. It’s still Brunson in iso when the chips are down. And they still look to him not the offense. FG attempts are up by less than
than 2 per gm 91.3 this yr, 89.2 last yr. Ts per gm are up by one point. So this so called pace and playing faster. Is all BS. Only stat that matters is the record. Last yr they finished 51-31 as second seed. With NO bench. This yr with Mitch ALL year and a bench. They are 41-24 the third seed this yr. So there is NO new offense. If tge Lakers one of worst defenses in the L. Can shut you down. Then there is no new offense.
1 bad road game over a lakers team they already beat at home isn’t conclusive, especially considering that the Lakers are 17-13 vs teams with winning records including the Spurs and Nuggets. And the stats prove you wrong, 5 more 3PAs/gm shooting more efficiently with a higher offensive rtg and net rtg is conclusively a new offense.
This year they could quite possibly win 13 out of the last 17 and finish 54-28.
Lakers are going to be first round exit.
Book it!
Conclusive???? I don’t know what that means. Nothing is conclusive till the season is done. This Knicks team has some bad habits. That’s not the way you want to go into playoffs. And giving up the 2nd seed is major to me. They better wake up.
You should try to stick to the topic. The sample size is plenty to have conclusively proven that the Knicks have a new offense.
Their bad habits, eventual seeding and how the rest of the season plays out are different subjects for discussion.
Who was that we saw yesterday ?
Best game of the year for Lakes and its not even close
I thought the pivotal moment for the Lakers was the start of the 2nd qrter where Reaves was brilliant sans Luka . They needed to play ALL 48 mins to beat Knicks and those 6 minutes (to start) were the key Imo
Ive never gotten the narrative Luka and Reaves are too similar to play together , in fact I think their games are wildly different and having both gives you that early 2nd qrter ability to stay afloat
Defensively its a bad mix. Not a Luka guy. So I will keep my mouth shut. If I’m Reaves. I rather be somewhere else.
Why? Reaves loves being a Laker, and the team loves him. Why would he go somewhere else?
He can do better being the lead guard somewhere else. Luka needs a defensive stud next to him. For the Lakers to be taken seriously. Pretty simple. They are both weak defensively. So what do you think happens when they play together. NEVER going to work. 2Way sport.
Lebron out and the Lakers are better.
Im not goin there yet but whatever they had for breakfast Sunday they need to repeat
Lakers aren’t a threat and getting absolutely piggybacked this season. Lakers have 7 or 8 guys with a worse plus minus defensively than Luka, including all mentioned above. Let that sink in.
Reeves isn’t worth 241m lol.
Correct, he’s worth a lot more