With the Los Angeles Lakers trading D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets, Austin Reaves has seen an increase in his usage rate. The Lakers are now relying even more on Reaves as a playmaker and ball-handler, and after the 122-110 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday, he spoke about having a bigger role.
“I’m excited… it’s fun,” Reaves said. “Like I said, I’m gonna mess up, I’m gonna do dumb things and I’m gonna learn from them and that’s all I can do. I’m kind of taking on this role on the fly. Trading DLo, getting more on-ball reps. Like I said, I’m just learning. It’s my fourth year in the league and every day I can still learn something new. So, I’m really excited to continue to learn, to continue to grow and become a better player.”
There will certainly be some growing pains as this is not an easy role to play. Reaves had three turnovers in the first quarter alone against the Cavaliers and he is going to keep making mistakes now and then. The key for him is not to allow that to have a negative impact on him and it certainly did not against Cleveland.
Reaves finished with 35 points (11-20 FG), nine rebounds, 10 assists, and a steal against the Cavaliers. The 26-year-old only had one turnover after the first quarter and was easily the Lakers’ best player on a night where they dropped to 18-14 on the season.
In this postgame press conference, Reaves was also asked what the most important things he has to do in this role are and where his focus had to be to excel in it.
“Just like I always say, play the game the right way and just do what the game calls for,” Reaves said. “If it’s scoring, score. If it’s not, make plays. But at the end of the day, just get us organized, get us into the stuff that we need to get in. Obviously, get (LeBron James) and (Anthony Davis) the ball, ’cause good things happen when that happens.
“Just trying to be a floor general, a coach out there that they can trust to kind of run things through,” Reaves added. “That’s not more so just go make a play, it’s just get everybody organized, get us in good offense and defensively talk. All those little things.”
Focusing on the basics is always a good idea. Reaves is trying to keep things simple and it will be interesting to see how much better or worse he gets in this bigger role with time.
Anthony Davis Reveals His First Impression Of Austin Reaves In His New Role
A lot of the assists Reaves had against the Cavaliers were to Anthony Davis and the big man certainly liked what he saw from the guard. In his postgame press conference, Davis sang Reaves’ praises when asked how he handled the bigger role.
“What’d he have, 36 tonight? 35? I mean, s***, he looked good to me. He’s a hooper. Obviously, he had a little bit more on his plate with the ball-handling responsibilities when Gabe (Vincent) is out and then Bron is out of the game. But he’s used to it. He’s been in the league long enough now.
“He know how to run the point guard position,” Davis added. “Going to be more reps but he’s ready for it and we got the utmost confidence in him to run the point.”
A rough start aside, Reaves certainly didn’t do anything to shake the Lakers’ confidence in him. The way he bounced back would have only strengthened their belief that he could be relied upon.
Reaves’ next test will come against the Portland Trail Blazers at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday at 10:30 PM ET. It’ll be a lot easier than this one against the Cavaliers, as the Trail Blazers are 11-21 on the season.
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