How D'Angelo Russell prepared Austin Reaves for Lakers scrutiny
Yesterday at 06:54 PM
LOS ANGELES – It was a Friday night and D'Angelo Russell was back in town, his first matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers since being traded to the Brooklyn Nets. So it seemed fitting that with the game on the line, the ball would find itself in his hands. D'Angelo Russell ended up missing the potential game-winner, and the Lakers' escaped with a 102-101 win, but Austin Reaves thought for sure that ball was going through the net.
"Man, it looked good. Not good for us, but the ball looked good in the air," Reaves said. "I've seen him make that shot a million times. . .he played a hell of a game."
That wasn't all Reaves had to say about his former teammate.
The pair shared a warm embrace at mid-court after the game, and Austin Reaves revealed that it was D'Angelo Russell who helped him weather the storm that comes with being a Laker.
"There's so many ups and downs in this league. The scrutiny is high being a Laker, so the more you can just stay connected to the group and connected with each other, is the most important thing to me," Reaves said. "D'Lo really helped me with that when he got here. With him being through that, being drafted here, being a young player, he's seen everything that I had been through or was going through."
"So when he got here, he really taught me how to, not that the noise was affecting me, but to really just push that aside and worry about the betterment of the team, how I can continue to grow and be better," Reaves continued. "I feel like that's the main thing, is just really continuing to grow as a leader."
It was a huge game for Reaves, who finished with a career-high 38 points in the Lakers' win. In a sense, he's dealt with much of the same scrutiny as Russell has, especially on social media from the fanbase. It comes with the territory of playing for the Lakers, and thanks Russell, Reaves is prepared to deal with it.
Austin Reaves reaching new heights with Lakers
Since the Lakers made Reaves the team's full-time starting point guard, he's seemingly taken his game to another level. His offensive production has gone up scoring-wise, and he's adjusting his new role as a primary ball-handler and playmaker, with some mixed results.
One area of potential concern during this stretch is Reaves' fluctuating turnover numbers, but Lakers head coach JJ Redick recently spoke about why he isn't worried about the turnover numbers.
Throughout the season so far, Reaves has been averaging 18.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.1 steals with splits of 44.3 percent shooting from the field, 36.7 percent shooting from the three-point line and 82.9 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
While Reaves has had some tremendous games; the 26 points, ten rebounds and ten assists against the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day, the 26 points and 16 assists against the Sacramento Kings a few days later and the 14 points and 14 assists to close out the Miami Heat earlier this week, there have been a few clunkers mixed in as well.
He shot only 4-of-13 from the field and turned the ball over four times during the loss to the San Antonio Spurs to begin this past week. In the Lakers' loss to the Detroit Pistons right before Christmas, he played fairly well, but had six turnovers and didn't close the game out well.
But through it all, it's been his mindset that's helped him stay the course.
"Sometimes when you aren't playing well, you can think about the things you could be doing better. . .instead just continuing to do what you were doing and just trust in the process of the work that I put in," Reaves said. "A couple of bad games, everybody has them. . .it's just what can I do in those games to even help us be successful."
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