Austin Reaves Feels Lakers Need To Communicate Better On Defense

03/26/2025 09:00 AM

The offense of the Los Angeles Lakers led by Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves looked unstoppable at times. But without a doubt the key to the team’s success has been their defense, which has been one of the best in the league over the last couple months.

But that effort and intensity on that side of the court has been missing the past couple of games and the Lakers have suffered for it, dropping back-to-back games to the Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic despite fielding a healthy roster. In order to be successfulm the Lakers have to get back to that level of defense and following the loss to the Magic, Reaves discussed what he feels the team must do to get there, via Spectrum SportsNet:

“Just paying attention to details, competing every single possession and just guarding your guy. We have to do it as a collective group every single possession. We gotta have five guys on a string."

With the Lakers not having a true rim protector, it is even more important that everyone is connected, talking, and playing with high energy. Reaves believes the Lakers still have moments where they play to that level, but can get discouraged if a team hits a couple shots in a row:

“In spurts, I think it has been. But that’s not good enough… You can’t be, if you’re getting stops you can’t just be talking. If they score a couple possessions, it’s OK. They’re gonna score. You gotta continue to do that even when you go a couple possessions without getting a stop. You gotta be consistent on that end. I thought we started out the game tonight with a lot of communication and then when they go on a little bit of a run, I thought we got quiet a little bit. We can’t do that. You gotta continue to figure things out through the flow of the game and not just talk when things are going good."

Reaves would continue on, noting that it’s the NBA and anyone can get hot, but the Lakers can’t let that stop them from doing what they need to do defensively:

“Yeah, like I said, there’s not many NBA basketball players in the world, so the guys in the league are good players. If they make a shot, regardless of what percentage they’re shooting from the field at the time, if they’re going through a shooting slump or not, I would say 98% of the league can make a 3 in a game. So you can’t just act like the world is burning because something that you don’t think is gonna happen happens. You gotta continue to stay the course, pay attention to the details and continue to compete. We gotta get our compete level back to where it was."

Things can turn quickly in this league, especially with the level of shooting throughout the NBA today. Sometimes a team can play perfect defense and the shot still goes in, but regardless the Lakers can’t afford to allow their effort and energy to drop as everything will go downhill.

Austin Reaves talks how Lakers can fast-track building chemistry

The Lakers are still a relatively new team getting to know each other and must continue to build up that chemistry. Unfortunately, they don’t have much time to do so, but Austin Reaves feels the best way to fast-track it is simply to talk.

“Talk. Talk to one another. That’s really it,” the guard said. “We can watch as much film as we want to watch to help that, but that communication amongst everyone on the team and the coaching staff is gonna play a big role in that. Like you said, we’re not gonna be on the court practicing that much with 12 games left. So we have to communicate, if it’s on flights talking about what we can do to be better, that’s what it will be. So I’m looking forward to it.”

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