For the second time in a week, the Los Angeles Lakers failed in their opportunity to make up ground on the Sacramento Kings. Austin Reaves led the Lakers with 28 points, knocking down seven 3-pointers, but it wasn’t enough as the Lakers fell to the Kings 120-107, being swept in the season series.
The Kings are right above the Lakers in the Western Conference standings and had they won at least one of these games, would be that much closer to moving up. But the Lakers were unable to pull out those victories and Reaves knows they missed an opportunity, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Those are both two big games. Obviously against a really good opponent that we had an opportunity this past week and a half to climb the standings, they’re a team that’s a couple games ahead of us or a little larger now. So those are missed opportunities. But it’s in the past.”
As for what went wrong in this most recent contest, the Lakers’ failure to defend the 3-point line led to huge nights from Harrison Barnes, Keon Ellis and Keegan Murray. Reaves felt the Lakers had too many breakdowns that ultimately cost them:
“They got guys that can really shoot the ball, Harrison Barnes was 7-for-11 and Keegan Murray was 5-for-10. There was multiple probable breakdowns we had but one that stands out to me was when I messed up one with probably five minutes left in the fourth and Keegan Murray or Harrison Barnes got a wide open 3 on the right wing. It was totally my fault. But like I said, this game is in the past now.”
The road to moving up the standings and potentially out of the Play-In Tournament is now even tougher for the Lakers. But if they’re going to do so, Reaves feels they have to treat every game as a must-win and play with that level of desperation:
“We just got to buckle down and treat every game as a must win, basically just approach it like that. Put our best foot forward and try to win every game we play.”
The Kings are a bad matchup for the Lakers, that much has been proven this season. There is still time for this team to really lock in and make some noise heading into the postseason, but it won’t be an easy journey.
Austin Reaves still believes Lakers are one of the best teams in the NBA
Austin Reaves has always maintained his belief that the Lakers are one of the best teams in the league when they play at their best and that has not waned at all. The guard recently re-iterated that belief after the Lakers win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“I believe it,” Reaves responded when asked if the Lakers are one of the NBA’s best teams. “Regardless of where we stand, if we go put our best foot forward and play the basketball that we know we can play, I think if you ask anybody coming in here or wherever we’re playing, it’s not easy. But we just got to keep our head down, keep doing the right things and keep playing the right way. Because the more repetition you have doing that, the more easy it is to continue to do that.
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