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Lakers guard Austin Reaves celebrates after making a three-pointer during a 115-113 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night. (Eakin Howard / Associated Press)
Christmas in California isn’t a Hallmark movie. The only magical snowfall in the Bay Area on Wednesday came when white confetti fluttered down at the end of a basketball game between the Lakers and the Warriors while a carol played over the Chase Center loud speakers.
The fans were mostly unimpressed, Austin Reaves having grinched the home team’s holiday moments earlier.
As they walked out, Reaves walked toward the middle of the court, putting on a headset to dissect what had just happened in a postgame radio interview.
Sitting down on the scorer’s tables during the post-buzzer blizzard, the moment wasn’t lost on Reaves. He, as he’s fond of reminding people, isn’t really supposed to be in these moments. He wasn’t good enough to get drafted. His town was too small for him to really get heavily recruited. And he certainly wasn’t the kind of player that you’d expect to be leaving the NBA’s marquee game with the ball after hitting the winning shot.
Lakers guard Austin Reaves scores the winning basket during a 115-113 victory over the Warriors on Wednesday. (Noah Graham / NBAE via Getty Images)
That’s what “they” have believed. Him? Less surprised.
Still, Reaves’ Christmas performance caught even him off guard. He’d wrapped his third-ever triple-double by sliding past the Warriors defense to beat Golden State 115-113.
“I’m really not really an emotional person,” Reaves said of the moment at the scorer’s table. “… There was a quick second where I thought I might tear up. And that doesn’t happen a lot. But it’s Christmas…”
And for a moment, he thought about Arkansas and his friends and family. He thought about Germany, where his older brother, Spencer, is one of the top shooters in the country. He thought, for a tick, about the long odds to that scorer’s table.
“I know all my people back home are locked in and sitting around with family watching the game and that means a lot to me,” Reaves said. “I say it…
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Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-12-26 06:19:00
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