After starting the season strong with a 3-0 record, the Los Angeles Lakers are now at .500 after going just 1-4 on their recent five-game road trip. Austin Reaves had a solid performance throughout most of the trip, contributing well offensively, though he faced some tough defensive matchups.
Despite Reaves’ individual efforts, the Lakers as a team struggled, particularly in the last two games of the road trip, where they were outworked by both the Detroit Pistons and the Memphis Grizzlies. After the loss to the Grizzlies, head coach JJ Redick had a message for the team, and Reaves agreed with him, acknowledging that they did not execute the game plan well.
“That we have to be better with basically every aspect of the game,” Reaves said, summarizing Redick’s message. “But the main thing was just competing and following the game plan.
They lay out good stuff for us to go execute and we just haven’t done that on this trip. We got to go home, look ourselves in the mirror and do better.”
Reaves also expressed his frustration with the team’s performance on the trip.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “You want to win every game, but on this road trip, it’s not what we wanted to do, obviously. But I think you can take little things good here and there throughout this road trip.
Obviously, LeBron tonight was really good. Me and DLo, especially, have to be better to help him in nights that we don’t have AD.”
Reaves played well against the Grizzlies, scoring 19 points, grabbing three rebounds, dishing out five assists, and recording three steals. However, D’Angelo Russell managed only 12 points, and Redick called him out after the game for his performance. Another point Redick made was the Lakers’ lack of attention to detail, and Reaves agreed with that assessment.
“I think it’s attention to detail,” Reaves said when reflecting on what he learned during the trip. “We’ve been talking about that since day one. I don’t feel like our attention to detail has been good, transition defense has been bad.
Now we have an opportunity to go home and be at home and have a couple practices and try to fix those things. But just the attention to detail, all of the little things that we have shown we can do, just haven’t done them on this trip.”
The Lakers now have the chance to return home and try to turn things around. But Reaves knows it will take a collective effort from the entire team to get back on track.
Reaves also mentioned that the team cannot let their shooting struggles affect other areas of their game. In the loss to the Grizzlies, the Lakers shot a season-high 48 three-pointers but only made 31.3% of them, which was frustrating. However, Reaves believes their shooting woes should not bleed into other aspects of their performance.
“It’s frustrating,” Reaves said, “but it shouldn’t bleed into other areas. There’s a million different ways you can help your team win games and we just haven’t done those on this road trip. Like I said, it’s frustrating, obviously. I would say 95% of us are perfectionists. I get mad when I miss one shot.”
He continued, “But it’s the reality of the game. If you make four out of 10 3s, you’re a really good shooter. So you keep shooting them with a high level of confidence and trust the work that you put in. But like I said, there’s a million different things during the game that you can do to help your team win.”
