After securing a Play-In Tournament win against the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday, Austin Reaves and the Los Angeles Lakers earned themselves a rematch with the defending champion Denver Nuggets in the first round for the NBA Playoffs.
With the odds stacked against them, revenge is still on the minds of the Lakers players, looking to knock the defending champions out early. It certainly is not going to be an easy task, especially since the Lakers have lost eight straight to the Nuggets dating back to last year.
Thankfully, the purple and gold secured a couple of days rest before Game 1 in Denver, giving them additional time to prepare for the Nuggets. As Saturday inches closer, Reaves shared his early thoughts on the first-round matchup with the Nuggets, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“Obviously very familiar with them. Defending champs, rightfully so. They’re a hell of a ballclub and we’ll have to go put our best foot forward, play as hard as we can and execute at a super high level because that’s what they do, especially in the fourth quarter, they execute every single possession like it’s the last possession of a game and that’s what’s beautiful about how they play the game. We just got to go match that and compete. That’s really it, super excited to go battle.”
If L.A. wants to achieve their goal of winning a championship this season, they have to get through the defending champions at some point during this postseason run. Perhaps this is the best opportunity for the Lakers to knock off Denver as LeBron James and Anthony Davis are as healthy as possible heading into this series.
Outside of the two stars, Reaves and other role players are going to need to step up if L.A. even wants to have a shot at winning this matchup. Reaves put together a strong playoff run last year, so the hope is that he can build on that heading into this series and maybe beyond.
Austin Reaves: Lakers ‘super excited’ about where they are going into playoffs
There is some optimism heading into the postseason with the recent play of the Lakers, who had one of the best records in the league coming out of the All-Star break. Despite not moving a ton in the standings, L.A. has found some consistency.
It was an up-and-down season, but the Lakers ultimately made it to the playoffs regardless of what transpired. Reaves admittedly said that the team is ‘super excited’ where they are going into the postseason, but only time will tell with a tough matchup against Denver.
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