Austin Reaves was one of many players who struggled in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 18-point loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night.
Reaves missed all six of his 3-point attempts, finishing with just nine points and five assists in one of the Lakers’ most disappointing performances of the season.
Things spiraled downhill for the Lakers in the second half as they were outscored 68-44 after halftime and the team was visibly frustrated. Some of that frustration was directed at the officials with LeBron James even picking up a technical at one point, but Reaves feels the team can’t worry about the refs.
“I think all of the body language and frustration comes from losing,” Reaves said after the loss. “Refs, they’re refs. They’re human. If they miss a call, at the end of the day, they’re probably gonna miss a call on the other end too. So regardless of good whistle, bad whistle, you just got to play hard and I think in the second half, towards the end, I think the frustration was just us losing.
“That’s not a bad thing because if we don’t care about getting beat then we don’t really care about the right things. Officials are human and they’re gonna miss calls on both ends and we can’t worry about that.”
The Lakers struggled on both ends of the floor in the second half and when it comes to their failures to score, Reaves felt the Lakers got stagnant.
“I think we got a little stagnant in the second half and when that happens, you have to be really good at making tough shots,” Reaves added. “In a sense, we are. We got guys that can do that… Some of the shots were just going in and out. We got to figure out how to obviously get those shots to go in or create easier, quality shots like we did in the first half.”
There were certainly a number of shots in the paint that somehow failed to fall for the Lakers. But the offense being stagnant overall is concerning and it is up to the coaching staff to help fix those issues.
Reaves, like everyone else on the Lakers, admitted frustration at his personal shooting struggles, but feels there are other ways to positively impact the game.
“I wouldn’t say press. Frustrating, yes,” Reaves noted. “We’re all professionals and we all expect to make shots. I didn’t shoot the ball well from the field, from 3. So when you’re shooting the ball and you feel like it feels good and it’s not going in, it’s frustrating. But then again, there’s a million things in the game that you can do to help your team be successful and play good. But tonight we just didn’t have a good second half.”
The second half cost the Lakers and if they can’t figure out a solution to their problems, that frustration will continue for the rest of the season.
Lakers have ‘no interest’ in trading Austin Reaves at trade deadline
With the trade deadline approaching, many are focused on deals the Lakers could make. Some wonder whether Reaves could be involved in such a move, but that is highly unlikely.
Recent reports suggest that the Lakers have ‘no interest’ in trading the guard at the deadline, and while he isn’t untouchable like James and Anthony Davis, he isn’t far off and it would take a massive offer to pry him away from the Lakers.
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