Austin Reaves feels special after he won the game for the Lakers over Mavericks.
Los Angeles Lakers rookie Austin Reaves feels special after his 3 pointers won the game for the Lakers over Mavericks.
Reaves was in the lineup after several players of the Lakers were placed in the health and safety protocol of the NBA.
The rookie earned coach Frank Vogel’s trust because L.A. had little other choice. Over the past 48 hours, the team was depleted from a string of players and staff members entering into the league’s health and safety protocols.
When Reaves received the pass from Russell Westbrook and let it fly from the right wing with 1.0 second left in the extra session, however, the context was inconsequential. He was a basketball player doing what he has done for as long as he has played the game.
“I mean, it’s basically been the story of my life,” Reaves said afterward. “I’ve always been underrated. Didn’t go to a big high school, so didn’t get recruited much, but at the end of the day, you got to produce on the basketball court and for me to hit that shot, for my teammates to have the trust in me to take that shot is very, very special.”
The youngster says he is lost of words after the special moment with his teammate after the victory.
“Just the genuine nature of the guys,” Reaves said when asked what stuck out about the moment. “You don’t see that much, especially with the type of guys that we have on this team — six Hall of Famers and then all the guys that have been in the league for 10-12 years. So, really just the genuineness of it is just special.
“I’m lost for words. I mean, I’ve grown up watching all of these guys play, so for them to … for me to even just be teammates with them is special.”
LeBron James stated after the game that the game didn’t go as expected but insists that they will keep on working on themselves to get better every single day.
“It hasn’t gone as everyone else has hoped it would,” James said of the Lakers’ season, now 16-13 and No. 6 in the West.
“It’s gone as how it’s gone. You go out and you play the game and you want to be better. You want to be better every single day. We want to continue to work our habits, continue do what we got to do to be great every night. So, we are who we are as a team. We got a lot of injuries, a lot of mixed lineups. Obviously guys in protocols and false protocols, things of that nature.
“So, we are what we are as a team right now and we like where we’re at.”
