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Lakers guard Austin Reaves, right, drives in front of Brooklyn Nets center Day’Ron Sharpe during the first half Friday at Crypto.com Arena. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
The time had come, the Lakers decided, to make a choice.
Since trading for D’Angelo Russell and playing him with Austin Reaves, the two guards largely alternated in the spotlight surrounding LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The touches, the shots, the responsibility — it usually always was split.
But gradually over the course of this season, that changed. Russell moved to the bench, Reaves becoming the primary ballhandler. And a trade with Brooklyn in December cemented it — the Lakers had cemented it.
Reaves was going to be their guy.
Read more: LeBron James waved at young fan sitting courtside at Lakers game. Then she cried tears of joy
“He’s in his process and he’s taking the opportunity and he’s running with it,” James said. “Literally running with it. And I love every moment that he’s given the opportunity to go out and showcase his talent with the best players in the world and he’s showing every night that he belongs. It’s a beautiful thing to see.”
Friday’s game was hardly beautiful, but it was necessary.
In Russell’s first game back in Los Angeles since being dealt to the Nets, Reaves had a career-high 38 points to help drag the Lakers across the finish line to a 102-101 win.
Russell had a chance to win the game — after a string of Reaves misses in the final two minutes — but his three-point attempt didn’t fall.
And while Reaves and James got hot in the fourth, the game was hardly as easy as it could’ve been — and they knew it early.
James backed up past midcourt and away from the Lakers’ bench after he made a three-point shot to end the first quarter. He felt that something wasn’t totally right in the building Friday night, that the rhythm was off and that the energy was flat.
So he put his hands in the air and begged for cheers. The crowd, having just witnessed 12 minutes of basketball at its most mild, eventually obliged.
Nothing came easy for the Lakers (22-17) against a team fresh off a 59-point…
[ad_2]Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/austin-reaves-scores-career-high-055644104.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2025-01-18 05:56:00
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