The Los Angeles Lakers’ second preseason game against the Brooklyn Nets marked the season debuts for both LeBron James and Austin Reaves. The latter is looking to build off a strong end to last season and an impressive stint with Team USA at the FIBA World Cup this summer and his first outing was promising.
Reaves finished with 18 points in the Lakers’ win, knocking down 5-of-7 shots from the field and 4-of-6 from 3-point range. The Lakers staff has slowly eased Reaves into camp and the preseason due to him having a long summer, but the guard was happy to get back on the court Monday night.
Following the contest, Reaves said he felt ‘really good’ in his preseason debut and believes his time with Team USA has him in really good shape, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I felt really good. But it was obviously fun to get back out here with Bron, AD especially but everybody else as well. Being the first time to play with or alongside most of these guys and it was a lot of fun, I felt good. It was good to get up-and-down get my wind up a little bit, but I felt really good. Obviously playing the USA stuff that trickles over into all this so I feel like I’m in really good shape right now.”
Reaves was also one of six Lakers to knock down multiple 3-pointers in the game and the team took 55 shots from deep overall, a much increased number from what was normal last season. Reaves attributed that to the Lakers simply having better shooters overall, and believes it will greatly help the team’s offense around its stars:
“I think we just have a team full of guys that can shoot the ball and that goes a long way as you see with what Golden State has done in the last 10 or so years, being able to space the floor like that. It was kind of one of our weaknesses last year.
“Obviously when you got Bron and AD you wanna get downhill and play at the rim cuz those two are really good around the rim. But when teams start emphasizing that then just being able to shoot the ball helps a lot and I feel like we have a lot of guys on the team, like I said, that can shoot the ball really well.”
Reaves is also at his best going to the rim and drawing fouls, giving the Lakers three top options to attack the basket. And if the Lakers can be an above-average 3-point shooting team, combined with the aggression of LeBron, Davis and Reaves attacking the rim, the offense will go to a completely different level.
Lakers’ Austin Reaves grateful for trust LeBron James has in him
Reaves quickly became one of the most reliable players on the Lakers roster and it was clear pretty quickly that LeBron James trusted the young guard, which is something Reaves is thankful for.
Reaves noted that he and LeBron always connected on a basketball IQ level, but that there was no conversation between the two that led to this level of trust. The guard also mentioned that first playoff game against the Grizzlies as a time where he knew he had to come through as LeBron showed a ton of trust to give him the ball in those clutch situations.
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