Austin Reaves Imagines Lebron And Luka Dončić Will Be Unimpressed By Game-winner

With some LeBron James and Luka Dončić sidelined owed to injury, nan Lakers erstwhile again needed to thin connected 1 Austin Reaves. And Reaves, who looks to beryllium successful nan early stages of a year-five breakout, was up to nan task. While it wasn't his champion shooting night—9-for-24 from nan section and 3 of 11 from three-point range—Reaves was astatine his champion erstwhile nan Lakers needed him nan most: successful nan 4th quarter.

Reaves scored 8 of his 28 points successful nan game's last period, helping Los Angeles stave disconnected a furious comeback from nan Minnesota Timberwolves, nan squad who eliminated them from nan postseason this past year.

And Reaves deed nan large shot, a one-legged floater successful nan paint that he sank to springiness Los Angeles a 116-115 lead pinch 1.1 seconds near successful nan game.

After nan contest, Reaves was asked if he expected to get immoderate praiseworthy aliases excited matter messages from James aliases Dončić astir his game-winning performance.

Quite nan oppposite, actually.

"They'll astir apt show maine I suck because I missed for illustration 14 shots," Reaves said pinch a laugh.

Well, they weren't matter messages, but we sewage an thought of really nan 2 Lakers stars actually felt astir what Reaves had accomplished connected Wednesday night.

Reaves's coach JJ Redick was arsenic unsurprised by Reaves's capacity successful nan clutch.

"That feline is going to show up successful nan large moments," Redick said aft nan game, via ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "Not surprised. He's done that galore times successful his career. He's done that galore times since I've been his coach. Feel very comfortable pinch him making decisions late-game."

Reaves, 27, has had rather nan week. With Dončić joining James connected nan sidelines, Reaves has readily accepted nan domiciled of Lakers' alpha, arsenic he dropped a career-high 51 points against nan Kings, chipped successful 41 vs. nan Trail Blazers and followed up those high-octane performances pinch a game-winner and 16 assists—tying his career-high—Wednesday. The Lakers (3-2) adjacent return connected nan Grizzlies connected Friday.

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