Austin Reaves, a guard with the Los Angeles Lakers, was once again in a solid offensive groove on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks.
Reaves had a somewhat slow start, but he picked up steam in the fourth quarter, finishing with 22 points, six rebounds, and seven assists on 6-for-13 shooting from the field and 3-for-6 from beyond the arc.
Reaves performed at Madison Square Garden for the first time in his career, and it was evident that the energy level wasn’t too high. He talked about how much he appreciated it and, in particular, winning via Spectrum SportsNet:
It’s great. Like you said, it’s my first time playing here. The atmosphere is unbelievable. For us to come out with a win and being productive in the fourth quarter. I didn’t play bad before that but I didn’t make shots, struggled a little bit. But a win is a win and that’s all I care about.”
Reaves had 14 points alone in the first quarter, when the Lakers erased a six-point deficit to earn the big win. He talked about how he was able to be that productive while also guarding Knicks star Jalen Brunson at times:
“We were just being super aggressive. Obviously it’s never an easy task guarding [Jalen Brunson] but we just had to send a double, make him get rid of it and make one of the others make plays. We were scrambling really well on the backside, didn’t end up really shooting the ball very well but we did a really good job getting out of those traps and rotating.”
Reaves and Brunson are close friends from their time playing together for Team USA in the summer, so it must have felt good for the Lakers guard to win, especially given how much his team needed it.
Reaves has seen ups and downs since agreeing to a large contract to play for the Lakers during the summer. But in the last few weeks, he seems to be really starting to show his potential, which is crucial if the Lakers hope to go to the postseason once more.
Following Reaves’ best game of the year, in which he led the Lakers to a road victory over the Boston Celtics without LeBron James and Anthony Davis, with a season-high 32 points, came the Knicks game.
Head coach Darvin Ham thanked Reaves for his contributions to the team throughout his three years with the Lakers after that game.
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