Austin Reaves thanks Russell Westbrook for his support

The Lakers kicked off the year with a big win over the Hornets on Monday night. A second consecutive success which concludes a “road trip” of five matches (3-2) in a good way.

Whether LeBron James (43 points) was once again sparkling, it was another Laker who came out of his box: Austin Reaves. The Lakers “sophomore” made a more than clean copy off the bench with 15 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds at 5/7 shooting including 2/2 at 3-pointers. An expected reaction because if Austin Reaves has been part of the restricted club of 50-40-90 since the start of the season, he was going through a fairly impressive skill breakdown in the two previous games against Atlanta and Miami: 1 out of 18 in total. A delicate period during which he was able to count on a teammate in particular: Russell Westbrook.

“The last four days I was very frustrated because I am very demanding of myself” says Austin Reaves. “I sincerely think that all my shots should go. Obviously, that’s not the nature of the sport, but everyone in the team and the staff kept telling me not to give up. I was talking to Russ after the Atlanta game and he told me he remembered against Memphis he couldn’t get a single shot. Hearing it from someone as successful as him helped me a lot, because that’s life. Things happen, you have to overcome them. It’s a long season, there are ups and downs. It’s sports”.

Managing the roller coaster of an NBA season

Austin Reaves also wanted to thank Phil Handy, a member of the Lakers staff, who gave him advice when his shots no longer returned.

“I reviewed all my shots and the majority of them were good shots. Unfortunately, they did not return. I was talking with Phil Handy and we were talking about energy and mindset and controlling that stuff. Since I was super frustrated the last four days, his most important message was to let it all go. Come back to who you are, joke, have fun, have a good time and things will happen”.

Austin Reaves has his address back, and that’s great news for the Lakers who need all the help they need to support a LeBron James in sparkling form. The latter, who has always appreciated his young teammate, is full of praise for him.

“In the end, you mustn’t go too high, nor go too low. Especially when you give it your all” explained LeBron. “You will always have another opportunity a few days later, maybe a day later, maybe a week later to turn things around. Obviously Austin could have played a lot better, and there were a few games where they didn’t play to their level. Tonight it was quite the opposite. We need everything from him. He’s so important to our team.”