MINNEAPOLIS – Austin Reaves had the ball for the final possession, of course, dribbling left off the high screen before seeing his opening to split the double team with a crossover and beeline into the lane.
Lacking the space and time to reach the rim, Reaves rose up for a floater and, with a quick flick from 12 feet out, swished the winner for the Los Angeles Lakers right before the buzzer for a 116-115 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.
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“I think we all knew that was ballgame,” teammate Dalton Knecht said.
After catching his balance and coming to grips with his latest feat — he said afterward he didn't see the shot go through the net because he “probably blacked out a little bit” — Reaves spun toward the visiting bench and ran over to jump around in a mob of giddy teammates.
“What tier he is, I don't know. I don't care about that, but I think last year he established himself as a bad dude,” Lakers coach J.J. Redick said. “This is who he is.”
Luka Doncic and LeBron James, who stayed home from this road trip to focus on recovering from their injuries, immediately posted their praise on social media. Reaves mostly aw-shucked it off, but the headband-donning Arkansas native who went undrafted out of Oklahoma in 2021 has not shied at all from the load he must carry when the team's generational stars are missing.
“The big thing is he’s established himself as the leader,” Redick said. “That's big time. That's what we need from him.”
With six players unavailable because of injuries, including point guards Marcus Smart and Gabe Vincent, Reaves has taken on a heavy ball-handling responsibility while getting blitzed often by opposing defenses that don't have to worry about Doncic.
Even on a night when he shot only 9 for 24 from the floor, Reaves had 28 points and matched his career high with 16 assists to help the Lakers build a 20-point lead by late in the third quarter. They needed every bit of it to beat the Wolves, who — after a 3-pointer by Reaves with 4:01 left put the Lakers up 112-101 — used a 14-2 run to take the lead with 10.2 seconds to go.
“To have that opportunity for a big road win, especially with a lot of people out, is special,” Reaves said, reflecting on his missed shot from the corner at the buzzer on the same court in Game 4 of the first-round playoff series last spring that would've tied it only to watch the Wolves hold on and eliminate the Lakers in Game 5. “We kept hooping, and they kept encouraging me to go do what I do.”
Reaves, who had a career-high 51 points in a win over Sacramento on Sunday and 41 points in defeat by Portland on Monday, became the first Lakers player since Kobe Bryant 20 years ago to start a season with five consecutive games of 25-plus points.
In his postgame interview at Target Center, Reaves got sentimental as he recalled blurting out to his mother's best friend at age 7 that he planned to play in the NBA — even though he was more of a baseball player at the time and didn't think much of basketball.
Now here is playing for one of the league's most iconic franchises. After averaging a career-best 20.2 points per game last season, Reaves has elevated his game even further — out of necessity with James missing to start and more recently Doncic joining him on the shelf.
“Physically it's a little more, but I'm always mentally trying to figure out how I can help — with them two and without them two,” Reaves said, playfully pleading for all of the team's missing players to return quickly.
But in the stacked Western Conference, these early tests could go a long way for the Lakers in their quest to return to depths of the playoffs.
“The camaraderie that we’ve built in a short period of time has been great," Reaves said, “and we’re going to continue to do that.”
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA