SACRAMENTO — JJ Redick has made a message clear across his first two seasons as the Lakers head coach: players’ roles don’t change when their teammates aren’t available. Even when those teammates are two of the NBA’s biggest stars in Luka Doncic and LeBron James.
Redick’s ask from the other players is for them to star within the framework of their respective roles that have been laid out for them – a sentiment best embodied on Sunday by Austin Reaves, who set a new career-high for points in the Lakers’ 127-120 win over the Sacramento Kings.
Reaves scored 51 points at Golden 1 Center, topping his previous career-high of 45 points he scored in the Feb. 8 home win over the Indiana Pacers last season.
“He was fantastic,” Redick said. “Did a little bit of everything for us. All over the place, scored the basketball at an incredible level. But just his tenacity to compete: it’s so apparent every single day he’s in the gym and he just loves competition. He thrives on competition. We talked about it some – a little bit towards the end of last season and then right after the regular season, this is a small town kid from Arkansas who went undrafted, who last year averaged a 20-ball in the NBA. And just had a 50-ball.
“These moments are incredible for him. His teammates see that. I know as a coaching staff, we see that. He just lives in the moment and he’s ready for every single moment that comes. And it’s a pleasure. It’s a pleasure to be around him every day.”
Reaves also had 11 rebounds, nine assists and a pair of steals for a near 50-point triple-double.
“Especially on a night where you don’t have Luka, you don’t have Bron, you don’t have Jaxson [Hayes], you gotta go out there and be big for the team,” Reaves said. “I wasn’t in my head thinking, ‘You gotta go score 50.’ It was, ‘do whatever you can do to help the team win.’ And we played, not just myself, but everybody, played a hell of a game.”
Deandre Ayton also stepped up in light of the Lakers being without James and Doncic, recording a 22-point, 15-rebound double-double.
Reaves was most animated after Ayton grabbed his own missed for an offensive rebound and had a putback dunk over Kings center Domantas Sabonis (10 points and 14 rebounds) to give the Lakers a 112-104 lead with 5:28 remaining.
“That’s what we need,” Reaves said of Ayton. “We encourage him every single day to be that. We need that from him. I’m sure there’s a picture out there. I was probably about to pass out, I was yelling so loud.”
Rui Hachimura had 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, while Marcus Smart added 11 points and five assists. LaRavia finished with 11 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Gabe Vincent (three points in 19 minutes) left the game early in the third quarter because of a sprained left ankle. He was seen wearing a protective boot in the locker room postgame, and told the Southern California News Group that his X-rays came back negative.
“I don’t have anything,” Redick said of Vincent. “We’ll know more [on Monday].”
Reaves took a patient approach in leading the Lakers’ offense with the absences of Doncic and James.
He had seven points and two assists in the first quarter, with the Lakers leading 36-27 after Hachimura made his first four shot attempts for 10 first-quarter points.
Reaves took over in the second, scoring over half (14) of the Lakers’ 26 points in the quarter to help them keep pace with a Sacramento offense that scored 35 points in the second to send the game tied at 62 going into halftime. He added another 15 in the third, putting him at 36 for the game, helping give the Lakers a 95-90 lead going into the fourth.
And the Lakers, who fell behind 101-97 early in the fourth while Reaves was on the bench, needed every bit of his scoring flurry in the final quarter.
Reaves made three pull-up 3-pointers within 2 ½ minutes of subbing back into the game in the fourth, putting him at 45 points, with his last one giving the Lakers a 108-101 lead.
The Lakers used Sacramento’s aggressive defensive schemes on Reaves against them, opening up scoring chances Ayton, Hachimura and LaRavia.
“We were ready for it,” Redick said. “It’s something we show on film, we do breakdowns. We’ve worked on it a ton over the last 10 days. Typically, we’re doing it to get ready for teams blitzing Luka. The guys did a great job of execution all night long. Particularly, in the fourth quarter off of the blitzes.
“Still got some things to work through right, now particularly if Gabe is going to be out, with just ball handling. It’s asking a lot of AR to be the sole ball handler the whole game and get pressured full court and have to offensively create. It’s just something we’ll have to figure out with our rotation in the short term.”
Reaves broke his previous career-high with a floater that put the Lakers up 122-116 with two minutes left before making four free throws in the final 32 seconds for the first 50-point game of his NBA career.
Doncic was two points away from scoring 50 points when he stepped up to the free throw line late in Friday’s win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, but split a pair of free throws to finish with 49 points.
Reaves teased Doncic on the Slovenian star’s postgame Instagram post from Friday, commenting “make a free throw”.
So when Reaves was in a similar situation on Sunday as Doncic was in two days prior, he knew he needed to make the shots from the charity stripe.
“I ain’t gonna lie, I went to the free throw line, I’m like, ‘[expletive], I better not miss’,” Reaves said. “I texted him [Sunday morning]. Me and him, the whole relationship is just talking trash back and forth. And towards the end of the conversation, he was like, ‘I need 60.’ And I was like ‘ha ha ha’. And that was the end of the conversation. But I’m definitely holding that one over his head.”
The Kings were led by Zach LaVine’s 32 points, and DeMar DeRozan’s 21 points, six rebounds and three assists. Dennis Schroder had an 18-point, 12-assist double-double.
The Lakers will host the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night to close out their back-to-back set.