anthony edwards

Jake LaRavia is not a household name.

A first-round pick out of Wake Forest in 2022, the Lakers forward has played for three NBA teams without garnering too much attention — at least not until Wednesday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Starting in his second straight game for injury-depleted L.A., which has been without LeBron James all season and Luka Doncic the last three games, LaRavia scored 27 points on 10-of-11 shooting, including five of six from three-point range).

Even then, LaRavia seemed to be toiling in obscurity. A number of fans at Minneapolis’ Target Center started shouting, “Who is No. 12?” — a genuine question as to the identity of the sharpshooter torching their team.

LaRavia, who was born in Pasadena and grew up in Indianapolis, took notice of the puzzled fans and more than once gave them a smile and a slight wave in acknowledgment.

When one fan yelled “Who is No. 12?” early in the fourth quarter — after LaRavia hit a three-pointer to give the Lakers a 105-89 lead — it caught the attention of injured Minnesota star Anthony Edwards on the bench. Edwards responded by spreading his arms above his head and shouting “That’s what I’m saying! I don’t know!”

FanDuel Sports Network broadcast the interaction between Edwards and the fan, and video clips of it have been circulating on social media. Again, LaRavia rolled with it all, writing “lol” in the comments of one such clip and posting the video on his Instagram Story, along with the caption “Cap” (slang for when someone is lying) and two laughing emojis.

The Lakers won the game 116-115 on a last-second floater by Austin Reaves, who had a team-high 28 points and 16 assists. Afterward, LaRavia credited Reaves for setting up most of his shots.

“Yeah, I mean, Austin has 16 assists, so I think they all came from him,” LaRavia told reporters. “But yeah, I was knocking down shots and kind of just getting my rhythm and kept shooting. So when they’re falling, they’re falling.”

LaRavia previously played his best basketball late in the 2023-24 season with Memphis, scoring a career-high 32 points against Cleveland, 28 against the Lakers and 29 against Denver in the final three games of the season. He also scored 25 against the Lakers during a late-March game that season.

Sent to the Sacramento Kings at the trade deadline last season, LaRavia became a free agent after his option was not picked up this summer. He was a career 42.9% three-point shooter, averaging 6.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, when he was signed by the Lakers to be a complementary player to the team’s bigger names.

Necessity has given LaRavia a greater role. His first start for the Lakers, which came Monday in a 122-108 loss to Portland, didn’t go so well (three points on one-for-six shooting, 0-for-three from three-point range). LaRavia said a conversation with coach JJ Redick and general manager Rob Pelinka helped him get in the proper mindset for Wednesday’s game.

“They have just been wanting me to be more aggressive scoring,” LaRavia said, “especially with everyone that we have out…. Our conversation with both of them [was] to just come out here and kind of play how I play. I think I did just that.”

He added: “It’s pretty much just like having a scorer’s mentality. A lot of times, I feel like when I’m in the game, I’m looking for an AR or someone else to get off the ball to, like hitting [Deandre Ayton] or whoever it is, and then to just come out tonight and be like, ‘I’m going to go score. I’m gonna be more aggressive myself so that when I am making shots, I can collapse the defense and then kick it out and stuff like that.’ Just to go out there and kind of have that scorers mentality.”

In addition to his scoring against Minnesota, LaRavia also had eight rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block, although Redick said his contributions were even greater than the numbers show.

“For Jake as a Laker, this game now is a reference point,” Redick told reporters after the game. “Not only for the offense — again, two out of the last three games, he’s been phenomenal defensively. … He had six or seven deflections tonight. He ended up with one steal and a block, but that doesn’t really capture his level of activity defensively. And then just continuing to have confidence in his shot and belief in that was big.”

Times staff writers Broderick Turner and Thuc-Nhi Nguyen contributed to this report.

“Miracle Mile” takes place in a city in the throes of chaos as Angelenos flee the threat of a nuclear strike. The film was released in 1988, but it has resurfaced in the last few years, attracting sold-out crowds at the American Cinematheque and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Written and directed by Steve De Jarnatt and made for $3 million, the film was restored and re-released by boutique film distributor Kino Lorber in 2024. In her commentary for the Blu-ray, author Janet Fitch (“White Oleander”) said “Miracle Mile” depicts “the kind of apocalypse that L.A. people imagine.”

Los Angeles knows how to weather a crisis — or two or three. Angelenos are tapping into that resilience, striving to build a city for everyone.

And even though it did not make a big impression when it opened, De Jarnatt said the film has gained what he called “cult status.”

Much of the appeal of “Miracle Mile” appeal can be attributed to the film’s obvious affection for the stretch of Wilshire Boulevard bordered by La Brea and Fairfax Avenues. Featured locations include the May Co. and Orbach’s department stores (now the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the Petersen Automotive Museum, respectively), the nearby Park La Brea towers and Johnnie’s Coffee Shop, which is closed and used primarily for film and TV productions.

The movie, which takes place over the course of 24 hours, starts out as a lighthearted romance. Anthony Edwards plays Harry Washello, a struggling trombone player who falls for coffee shop waitress Julie Waters (Mare Winningham) after they meet cute at the La Brea Tar Pits. The couple make a date to meet after her evening shift is over.

But their plans fall apart. Harry unwittingly intercepts a call at a phone booth, and the caller tells him nuclear missiles will strike Los Angeles within the hour. As the city unravels, Harry and Julie try to save their upended romance.

The ending is both sad and happy. “To be with the one you love at the end, even if it’s a brand new love who you met at the La Brea Tar Pits, which is like a time portal and a museum dedicated to extinction, is as good a way as any to go out,” De Jarnatt says.

(And it was a particularly happy ending for Edwards and Winningham, who bonded while filming the project. At the time, both were married to other people and stayed friends while working together on other projects — including “ER,” in which Edwards played the lead role as Dr. Mark Greene. The two eventually became a couple and wed in 2021.)