Austin Reaves’ quiet game magnifies Lakers’ bigger defensive struggles
The answer was entirely predictable: “Good.”
The question that elicited the response above from Austin Reaves: How was he feeling physically?
Reaves doesn’t make excuses, and he wasn’t about to start now, not in the wake of a 132-119 defeat by the San Antonio Spurs at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night.
Except Reaves didn’t look “good” in the loss.
He finished with a modest 15 points, including only four in the first half.
The underwhelming performance followed an 11-point game against the Philadelphia 76ers three days earlier.
“Just didn’t get the ball to go in the basket,” Reaves said.
Or was it something more?
Was the offensive burden he shouldered up to this point starting to take a toll on him?
Had the former undrafted free agent really elevated his game to a new level or was he just on a six-week heater?
The answers will be revealed in the coming weeks.
The Lakers, however, already know they can’t win with Reaves playing the way he did against the Spurs, when he made only two of six shots in the opening half.
Reaves has to score for this version of the Lakers to beat a team like the Spurs. He has to score because they can’t stop anyone.
Their on-ball perimeter defense is atrocious.
Their three-point defense is dreadful.
Their transition defense is shocking.
“Very few teams don’t have something that you can expose and we consistently got exposed to the same things,” coach JJ Redick said.
Bill Parcells once said you are what your record says you are, but that might not be the case with the Lakers, who are 17-7.
In their last six games, Lakers opponents have shot 49%, including 45% on threes. Redick’s team has allowed an average of 122 points per game.
“The things that help you win on the margins, we’re just not very good at right now,” Redick said.
The defense against the Spurs was particularly awful, the visitors making 50% of their threes in the first two periods to take a 70-58 lead into halftime with their franchise player Victor Wembanyama sidelined with a calf injury.
The Spurs’ athleticism clearly troubled the Lakers, who lack footspeed on the perimeter.
“They were just going downhill, driving and [kicking],” Lakers guard Luka Doncic said. “They scored like 10 three-pointers in the first half. They got up real quickly.”
Spurs guard Stephon Castle finished the game with 30 points. He was one of seven players to score in double figures. The Lakers were behind by as many as 24 points.
“Obviously, it’s a unique team,” Lakers forward LeBron James said. “They got six or seven guys that can break you off the dribble. Super fast, super quick.”
Unlike the Lakers, who have slow-moving guards in Doncic and Reaves, a 40-year-old player in James and an inconsistent center in Deandre Ayton.
The Lakers were eliminated in the playoffs last season by a more physically gifted team in the Minnesota Timberwolves and they once again look incapable of overcoming such a disadvantage this time around.
Asked what they could do to remedy their defensive shortcomings, James replied: “I mean, obviously, you can’t do it individually by yourself. It has to be five guys on a string, communication always at an all-time high, letting you know what’s going on behind you and things of that nature.”
Redick shared a similar view, but made it sound as if the process could take time. In the meantime, he said he expected Reaves to recover from his two-game slump.
Even after the Spurs game, Reaves ranked ninth in the NBA in scoring at 27.8 points per game.
“Yeah, look, the reality is the guy carried us for six weeks and that takes a toll on you,” Redick said. “He kept fighting and I appreciate that. But he’s gonna have a lot more great nights than frustrating nights.”
He better. More frustrating nights for Reaves figure to result in more frustrating nights for the Lakers.
