After the Los Angeles Lakers won the In-Season Tournament Championship Game against the Indiana Pacers, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham had bold words about Austin Reaves.
“I don’t think he gets enough credit for how competitive he is,” Ham said about Reaves. “He’s a competitor, man. … He’s just a highly, highly elite, intelligent basketball thinker and worker, and it shows once we get in these moments when we need him. Austin is also one of those guys that can carry the group at certain segments of the game, finish games and make all the plays you ask him to make and some that you weren’t expecting.”
Reaves played 28 minutes off the bench versus the Pacers. Despite being sick, the guard finished with 28 points and three assists while shooting 9-of-15 from the field and 10-of-12 from the free-throw line.
Reaves is averaging 14.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists on the season for the Lakers while shooting 46.7% from the floor, 33.0% from 3 and 86.3% from the foul line. He signed a four-year, $53 million contract with Los Angeles in July.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Darvin Ham, Austin Reaves, Los Angeles Lakers Updates
“Any time you can be the first to win or do anything or win anything, it’s cool,” Reaves said. “The money is a good, extra bonus, but any time we get on the court and compete as a unit, we want to win regardless of the tournament or regular-season game. To be able to say that we won the first one is cool.”
Reaves and his Lakers teammates won $500,000 after beating the Pacers. Anthony Davis, who went off for 41 points, 20 rebounds, five assists and four blocks against Indiana, knows how important Reaves is.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Darvin Ham, Austin Reaves, Los Angeles Lakers Updates
“What he did, what he’s been doing this entire season, has been unbelievable,” Davis said of Reaves. “He takes a lot of pressure off us, too. We draw so much attention and he’s able to go one-on-one or playmake for himself or for the other guys. He’s meant a lot to our organization and to our team. There’s nothing that he can’t do on the offensive end and he’s locking in defensively.”
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