Since winning the NBA In-Season Tournament, the Los Angeles Lakers have come crashing back down to earth.
The Lakers have looked like a completely different team after going a perfect 7-0 in the IST as they’ve only managed to win three games since beating the Indiana Pacers in the championship game.
A mixture of a tough schedule and injuries have been hard to overcome, but Los Angeles is definitely underperforming given the talent on their roster.
Austin Reaves emphasized how much he wants to win following a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, and isn’t making any excuses for himself or the rest of the roster since their tournament win, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I’m a super competitor. It don’t matter what it is. Speaking on competitiveness, every time I play Spades with my family, everybody ends up mad at me. It don’t matter what it is. We could go play golf, we could play basketball, baseball, I want to win. That’s the main goal at the end of the day. Wins, losses are why you play the game. You want to win. And as a team, I believe what our goal is to do is win.
“Since the In-Season Tournament, we’ve been struggling with health, injuries, sickness, we’ve kind of had some bad fortune there. But at the end of the day, that happens to everybody. We got to look in the mirror and see what we could do to be better. What I can do to be better and just get better.”
Some could argue that L.A. hasn’t shown much urgency at this point of the season, though Reaves believes it’s there despite the losing:
“I would like to think that the urgency, regardless, should be there. And I feel like it has for the most part. We just haven’t done enough to win.
“Regardless of what our record is, if we were 24-10 or whatever the case is, we should walk on the court every night with a sense of urgency to win the game and do whatever we need to do to win the game. Going forward, that’s what we’ll do. Like you said, last year it was tough to dig ourselves out of that hole and we’re in a better pot right now than we were last year, but we got to change and figure it out.”
Reaves doesn’t lack any confidence because he previously said the Lakers can beat anyone, but he and the team have to prove that they’re actually a serious playoff threat.
Austin Reaves: Lakers need to find identity
Los Angeles’ bread and butter has been their defense for the most part, but Reaves believes that the squad is still figuring out their identity.
That’s been further complicated by a rash of injuries that in turn contributed to lineup changes. The most recent of which was placing Rui Hachimura into the group, though he suffered a calf strain and could miss time moving forward.
Meanwhile, Reaves has remained on the bench as been relied upon as a key leader for the second unit.
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