Game 1 against the Thunder was the biggest game of the season for the Lakers, and Austin Reaves didn’t show up.
He was historically bad, shooting 3-16 from the field, which was the worst shooting night a Laker has had in a postseason in over three decades.
It’s just one game, and there can be plenty of reasonable reasons why Reaves had a bad performance.
For starters, the Thunder have the best defense in the NBA, so they make plenty of players look bad. Also, he is still just coming off his Grade 2 oblique strain. He returned for Game 5 against the Rockets, and while he’s now played in three matchups, it’s unlikely that he is anywhere close to 100%.
However, if fans expect Reaves to make excuses, he isn’t taking that option.
“Nobody cares about that,” Reaves said after the loss. “I got to go out there and play better.”
The good news is, Reaves has plenty of ways to improve. He can focus on protecting the ball and not having four turnovers as he did in Game 1, or he can just get back to his regular-season average offensively, scoring 23.3 points per game.
“Obviously, the easy thing is to make more shots,” Reaves said. “I got to my spots multiple times and just missed a couple of easy shots. But, for the most part, got to limit the turnovers. They pressure the ball really well. Just got to give us an opportunity to get a shot on goal each possession.”
In a seven-game series, players typically perform what their averages are. So, Reaves should have better games ahead of him.
With such a quick turnaround between games, Reaves just needs to take what he can from this experience and quickly move on to Game 2.
“Watch film,” Reaves said. “See what the game gives you and learn from that and move on. It’s not going to do us any good to think about that.”
Reaves will have all eyes on him after this loss.
He is currently LA’s No.1 offensive option and didn’t play like it. He has to be better, and Reaves, to his credit, made it clear in his comments that he’s well aware of this.
If he is the franchise player everyone thinks he is and wants the big payday this summer, then the response from him will be a great Game 2 performance.
And the Lakers will be hoping for just that, or else this series will be a short one.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
