The Los Angeles Lakers returned to their original starting five of the season on Monday night by placing Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Taurean Prince next to the superstar duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The lineup gathered a 21-19 lead by the first substitution of the game and had a plus-2.9 net rating in 19 minutes together for the night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The result was a winning effort against one of the Western Conference’s best teams, providing some momentum and hope for the Lakers as they reached the exact midpoint of what has been a rollercoaster 2023-24 season. Reaves finished as a game-high plus-nine and with a game-high seven assists, as he was able to thrive alongside the offensive powerhouses of James, Davis and Russell.
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said that this starting five would remain in place for the foreseeable future after injuries and poor performance forced L.A. to make routine switches to their starting unit. Reaves spoke about the staying power of the current group.
“This is the lineup we started with this year and something that we feel comfortable with. We’ve have had some chemistry together and we like what we can do with this group,” he said.
“But it’s not just that, it’s everybody on the team. Vando was amazing tonight. Only took two shots but impacted the game way more than the stat sheet will show. But yeah. It was a good win.”
Getting the win against the Thunder should provide Ham and the Lakers with confidence that this starting five can help to reduce slow starts, even if they are not perfect. Reaves, Russell, Prince, James and Davis struggled on the defensive end in their 19 minutes together on Monday, finishing with a 124.4 defensive rating.
But Reaves is confident that the defense is a fixable issue for the starting five and discussed what it will take for that to be the case.
“Compete. Trust one another, and really just communicate,” Reaves said. “With that group, we have a lot of guys that know how to play the game and know schemes, coverages, but also know kind of how to, I don’t want to say freestyle, but if someone gets beat, backside help is there and you rotate, and really just have one another’s back. And like I said, just compete.”
The Lakers won’t be playing teams as elite offensively as the Thunder often, as Oklahoma City has the fourth-best offensive rating in the NBA this season. Getting that early test out of the way could be a momentum boost for this group and for a team that has been in desperate search for it.
L.A. has a chance to build on the success against the Thunder when the Dallas Mavericks come to town for a primetime matchup on Wednesday night.
Austin Reaves likes sharing court with Russell
One thing that Reaves specifically enjoys about returning to the original starting lineup is more minutes alongside Russell. Reaves called it an honor to play next to Russell in the starting lineup.
“It’s good to be on the court with him, he’s a super talented player that has been doing this for a while. His skill is very unique with how he does it when he’s on the court, so it’s an honor to share the court with him.”
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