If the last week was the regular season, Austin Reaves would’ve been on the court with his Lakers teammates sooner than Thursday.
But the reality is that it’s still the preseason – and will be for another 1 ½ weeks, and two more games.
Which meant there was no need for the Lakers to rush their star guard back onto the floor after he suffered a minor ankle injury during practice last week.
“There was a chance he might be able to play in either of those games in Northern California,” Coach JJ Redick said of Reaves ahead of the Lakers’ 114-110 win over the Kings at Crypto.com Arena. “We knew it’d be sometime this week.”
Reaves made his long-awaited preseason debut in the Lakers’ preseason home-opening win over the Kings, providing the first glimpse of how the team’s starting backcourt will look with the team built out around him and superstar guard Luka Doncic.
And he hardly missed a beat, dishing out 8 assists and grabbing 5 rebounds in 25 minutes during a night in which he struggled with his shot (8 points on 2-of-7 shooting).
“Obviously very nice to have Austin out there,” Redick said. “He did a great job [of] play-making and played overall just a nice floor game.”
Reaves was already acquainted and familiar with Doncic after being teammates for 1 ½ years before Reaves re-signed with the Lakers on a four-year, $180 million contract during this past offseason.
Their friendship on and off the court is well-documented.
But Thursday was the first time Reaves shared the court with many of his new Lakers teammates – from Quentin Grimes and Kevon Looney (both of whom started on Thursday) to Sandro Mamukelashvili and Matisse Thybulle.
“They were awesome,” Reaves said about his teammates. “Matisse has been great, Mamu was great, Jake’s been really good. Could go down the list. Very excited with what we have.”
The Lakers are hoping to get a better look at their entire team in one of their final two preseason games before their regular-season opener against the Warriors on Oct. 21 in Los Angeles.
Ziaire Williams, who’s competing for a spot in the starting lineup, has sat out of the last two games, while Walker Kessler and Collin Sexton have yet to make their preseason debuts.
Redick said Kessler, the Lakers’ 7-foot-2 marquee free-agency acquisition this offseason, will play during the preseason.
He also responded “no” when asked if there was a concern about Sexton not being ready for the regular-season opener.
The Lakers have two more preseason games: Tuesday vs. the Warriors in Las Vegas and Oct. 16 vs. the Nuggets in Los Angeles.
There’s clear direction for the Lakers over the next week outside of having more rotation players healthy and available.
“It’s just continuing to build chemistry and compete on the defensive end,” Reaves said. “I thought we’ve done a really good job, especially the guards, like I said, Matisse, Ziaire have been really good, Jake [LaRavia] as well, Adou [Thiero], [of] putting pressure on the other team’s best players but being able to keep the ball in front as well, not getting blow bys.
And if we do, [the] low man being there. But it’s kind of easier to dial that back instead of telling people not to pressure the ball when we want them to pressure but be smart while doing it. Like I said, it’s mostly just chemistry stuff.”
