Austin Reaves is typically a complementary player for the Los Angeles Lakers, but he’s fresh off one of the top performances in franchise history.
Reaves looks to follow-up an outing in which he nearly nailed a 50-point triple-double when the Lakers host the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night.
Reaves scored a career-best 51 points and also had 11 rebounds and nine assists while leading Los Angeles to a 127-120 victory over the host Sacramento Kings on Sunday night.
“He was fantastic,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Reaves. “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.”
Reaves stepped up after the club learned it would be without star guard Luka Doncic for about a week with a sprained left finger and bruised lower left leg. Doncic averaged 46 points over the first two games, scoring 43 and 49.
Also, the Lakers remain without fellow star LeBron James (sciatica), who isn’t expected to make his season debut for another two-plus weeks.
“You got to go out there and be big for the team,” Reaves said of his approach. “It wasn’t in my head to go out there and score 50. It was to do whatever you need to do to win.”
Reaves might have put together the team’s best all-around performance since Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor had 50 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists against the Boston Celtics on Feb. 13, 1963.
The player signed as an undrafted free agent in 2021 is the fifth different Lakers player to score 50 in a game this century, joining James, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Anthony Davis. Bryant holds the franchise regular-season mark of 25 50-point games.
“I grew up watching all those guys,” the 27-year-old Reaves said. “I ain’t got no words. Those are some of the best players to ever play the game.”
Reaves’ previous career high was 45 points, set last season against the Indiana Pacers. On Sunday, he made 12 of 22 field-goal attempts — including 6 of 10 from 3-point range — and 21 of 22 from the free-throw line against the Kings.
Deandre Ayton also excelled with 22 points and 15 rebounds as the Lakers won for the second time in three games this season.
Ayton now faces his former team after calling Portland home for the past two seasons.
The Trail Blazers also played Sunday night and fell 114-107 against the host Los Angeles Clippers. Portland shot just 36.9% from the field, including 11 of 41 from 3-point range.
Interim coach Tiago Splitter thought the Trail Blazers played well.
“We got 18 offensive rebounds, created (24) turnovers; it wasn’t a lack of effort, right?” Splitter said. “At the end of the day, you have to make shots and they made more shots than us.”
Deni Avdija recorded 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and Jrue Holiday contributed 21 points, seven assists and six rebounds for Portland.
Chauncey Billups coached the team in the season-opening loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night before being arrested the following morning for his alleged involvement in illegal poker games affiliated with the Mafia.
Splitter is hoping the Billups conversation will soon die down.
“We don’t want to be talking about the outside,” Splitter said. “We want to play and we want to talk about basketball. I know you guys want the news, a quote from me, from a player, I understand it’s your job. But at the end of the day, we want to play basketball.”
The Trail Blazers rolled to a 109-81 home victory in the finale of last season’s four games with the Lakers to halt a six-game slide in the series.
