The crowd was suddenly at its most alive, chanting “M-V-P, M-V-P.”
It wasn’t for James — the NBA’s all-time leading scorer — who was sidelined and forced to watch with his hands folded and legs crossed. It wasn’t for Anthony Davis, still out-of-rhythm after a tough loss days earlier.
No, the most valuable player, at least Sunday, was Austin Reaves.
Then it happened again, again and again and again — one roar after a Reaves free throw rolled around the rim and in and another when he iced the game from the line.
He scored 35 points — a career high for the second-year player signed as an undrafted free agent — to the Lakers to a 111-105 win over the Orlando Magic.
The win snapped the Lakers’ first losing streak since D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt have played together.
Sunday marked three weeks since James suffered a foot injury in Dallas, an injury that threatened to unravel the Lakers season.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)
The team has gone 6-5 with James recovering.
In the most optimistic on-the-record assessment to date, coach Darvin Ham spoke of “when” James would return, the absence of “if” being notable.
“Yeah, we anticipate him coming back at some point,” Ham said when asked about his word choice.
The Lakers have played well enough to stay in the postseason race. But it hasn’t helped them gain meaningful ground.
“We just have to continuously defend our tails off, make sure we’re getting good contests on shots, try to come up with rebounds, holding teams to one possession. And then staying disciplined with our pace, our running habits and sharing the ball. And we can live with the results,” Ham said pregame. “Bron, with him being out, it’s revealed that we have a lot of different weapons that are very capable players on both sides of the ball that can help us achieve the goal we’re trying to achieve.
“And when he comes back, he’s just going to add to it. But guys just got to play. We’ve got to stay together.”
James’ return would be a massive boost to Davis, who has carried the primary offensive load.
After a disastrous stretch to close Friday’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks, where he fouled a three-point shooter, missed a key free throw and had the game-winner swished over his hand, Davis couldn’t get fully back on track against the Magic.
He split on each of his first three trips to the free-throw line, the crowd murmuring as the shots rimmed out. Despite shooting better than 80 percent from the line this season, clutch misses in Lakers losses have moved from coincidence into trend.
He scored 15 on 15 shots Sunday, the Lakers benefiting from one major fact — Davis’ bad nights are never that bad because of his impact on defense. Sunday, he had four blocks and two steals in the win.