LOS ANGELES – This year’s iteration of the Lakers will go as far as Luka Dončić, LeBron James and Austin Reaves take them. But that’s more of an endgame reality.
To not only survive but thrive during the
82-game gauntlet that is the NBA season, the Lakers will need everyone to pull their weight, including players who are unknown to the NBA world at large.
Enter Jake LaRavia. LA’s free agent signing that wasn’t considered a significant signing by most league observers.
With just four years of service in the NBA, he’s already on his third team and has yet to stick in one place.
So, it’s no wonder that when he was lighting up the Wolves, a fan, and Anthony Edwards, demanded to know, “Who is No. 12?!”
The league and its fans, though, are quickly learning who LaRavia is. After cooking the Wolves on Friday, he did the same to the Heat on Sunday, scoring 25 points in the Lakers’ 130-120 win over the Heat.
But even back home in front of his own fans, LaRavia heard the same “Who is No. 12!?” calls throughout the night, this time in a more friendly manner.
“I kind of played into it a little bit,” LaRavia said. “I find that kind of stuff funny, because I am not well known at this moment, so I’ll just, you know, head down, working hard. That’s all I do.”
LA, for better or worse, is not a place where you can succeed or fail quietly.
If LaRavia has more standout games for a Lakers team that’s tied for the most nationally televised games at 34, it won’t be long before the entire NBA world will be talking about his impact on LA’s success. Miami was the latest to get a crash course in who LaRavia is.
LaRavia did it all offensively against the Heat from grabbing rebounds to shooting 10-13 from the field and even dunking the ball in the fourth quarter with his left, though that’s not something fans should be getting used to.
“This is the first time I’ve dunked, I think, in a long time with my left hand,” LaRavia said postgame. “And I just saw an open lane, I was aggressive attacking it, and he kind of jumped a little bit late, so I went up to go dunk the ball for the first time instead of just trying to lay it up.”
That left-hand dunk was an exhilarating play, but it was also needed.
At the time, the Lakers’ advantage had dwindled to just three points, forcing head coach JJ Redick to call a timeout. During the stoppage of play, he let his team have it with a fury of rhetorical questions mixed with a barrage of expletives.
LaRavia’s dunk cooled things down and kept the Lakers in control of the game. While this play was the highlight of his performance, his entire night was reel-worthy.
Against the fastest-paced team in the NBA, LaRavia kept his head on a swivel on defense as he nabbed four steals. One was from behind Heat guard Andrew Wiggins, another was when he poked the ball out of Jaime Jaquez’s hands and the other two were overzealous skip passes.
This wasn’t just a one-off defensive performance from LaRavia. He’s been consistently active defensively and leads the Lakers in deflections, averaging 3.6 per game. With so many players still out, offensive outbursts and defensive playmaking are not only appreciated but necessary.
And a lot of it doesn’t have anything to do with running plays for LaRavia or the system the Lakers run. It’s his intuitiveness and the things that one simply cannot teach.
“He just has a really good feel,” head coach JJ Redick said. “His knack for the basketball as a defender, his knack for the basketball as a rebounder. He just has a real intuitive feel for the game.”
The season is young, and LaRavia’s time in a Lakers uniform has been just six games. However, his averages of 10.8 points and 4.7 rebounds, along with his 47.6% conversion rate on 3-pointers, would make this a career year for the young forward.
“Jake’s a dog,” Jaxson Hayes said. “I mean, he just gets shots where he gets them and makes a lot of tough shots, makes good plays, on defense. I just feel like that was just such a great pickup this summer.”
So far, the LaRavia experience has been an enjoyable one.
If this recent play by him is a standard he can eventually regularly achieve, then the Lakers have secured another home run signing and the rotation now features one more player who can be depended on to make an impact on both sides of the ball.
And everyone will certainly know who No. 12 is.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
