Although Austin Reaves’ shooting efficiency has fluctuated from game to game this season, he has already had a large number of big performances. He reached double figures in assists in six of his previous nine games coming into Friday’s contest versus the Brooklyn Nets, when he ran amok in front of a familiar face.
Friday’s game was the Los Angeles Lakers‘ first look at D’Angelo Russell in a different uniform after they sent him out in the Dec. 29 trade that brought them forward Dorian Finney-Smith. With Finney-Smith and Anthony Davis both out of action, someone needed to step up big time, and that someone was Reaves.
The undrafted guard erupted for a career-high 38 points, and the Lakers needed every single one of them. With time running down in the fourth quarter, Russell launched a potential game-winning 3-pointer that looked good. But it was just a bit off, and L.A. escaped with an ugly 102-101 victory.
Reaves and Russell were good friends as Lakers teammates, and Reaves couldn’t resist throwing a bit of shade at Russell after Friday’s game for missing that last shot.
“Man, it looked good,” Reaves said. “Not good for us, but the ball looked good in the air. It wouldn’t have been in that position if I didn’t miss about four shots in a row, but I’ve seen him make that shot a million times. Max [Christie] played good defense, but good defense can only take you so far sometimes and, like I said, I’ve seen them make that shot.
“Fortunately, it didn’t go in, so thank you.”
In his last 10 games, Reaves has averaged 22.2 points and 8.9 assists a game and has shot 40.6% from 3-point range. With Russell gone, he has seemingly taken on even more of a burden to not only masquerade as the Lakers’ primary ball-handler and facilitator but also be a legitimate third scoring threat.
Russell didn’t play too badly himself — he chipped in 19 points, eight assists and six rebounds in 27 minutes off the bench on Friday. He and his new teammates made this game ugly and low-scoring, which made victory more gratifying for Los Angeles.
Reaves and crew are now 22-17 and can move into fifth place in the Western Conference with a victory on Sunday against the Los Angeles Clippers.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Austin Reaves throws shade at D’Angelo Russell after Friday’s win
