The Los Angeles Lakers have always needed big performances from LeBron James and Anthony Davis to win crucial games, but although they each had good outings in Game 1 against the Memphis Grizzlies, they weren’t the story of the afternoon.
Instead, the spotlight went to Austin Reaves who dominated crunch time and led the Lakers to a victory over the Grizzlies to give them a 1-0 lead in the series. Reaves didn’t look like this was his first taste of playoff basketball as he looked calm, cool and collected handling the ball in the fourth quarter.
Despite sharing the floor with James and Davis, Reaves took it upon himself to carry the scoring load in the final period. The sophomore didn’t miss a shot in the second half and drained several jumpers to put the Grizzlies away late.
After hitting a tough shot in the lane, Reaves was seen screaming “I’m him!” toward his sideline, via the Lakers’ official Twitter account:
HIM. pic.twitter.com/vBsQWx2clm
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) April 16, 2023
Later on, Reaves admitted his emotions flowed through him because it was the moment he had always dreamed about, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It’s a lot of emotions. You dream about being on a stage like this. These are the best basketball players in the world, it’s the playoffs and you know, I got hot late and just having fun.”
Reaves has been playing the best basketball of his career since being moved to the starting lineup, but no one could have predicted he’d dominate so quickly in the postseason. There was some concern that his lack of playoff experience would cause him to struggle, but he’s seemingly put those questions to rest with his 23-point performance in Game 1.
Having someone like Reaves next to James and Davis is a boon for the purple and gold as he’s able to organize the offense or hunt his own shots depending on what the defense is trying to do. But aside from the basketball ability, his fearlessness and competitiveness really jumps out on the screen.
Memphis will make the necessary adjustments to try and limit Reaves, but so far it looks like he’s built for the moment.
Austin Reaves wants to remain with Lakers for whole career
Reaves is due for a massive pay raise in the offseason when he’ll hit restricted free agency. Teams are going to be aggressive going after him and may try and force L.A.’s hand, but Reaves has already made it known that he wants to stay with the purple and gold for the rest of his career.
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