Austin Reaves spoke openly after the Los Angeles Lakers’ 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, reflecting on both his own play and the injury to Luka Doncic.
“I went back to get a rebound, overextended a little bit, you know, felt something decent now. So, we’ll see,” Reaves said regarding his own minor injury during the game.
The Lakers fell six points short of their worst margin of defeat ever, and Reaves acknowledged the emotional impact of seeing Doncic leave with a left hamstring injury. “You just hold on to some faith for the best news possible. As I’ve gotten to know him the last year and a half, he’s a competitor so he’ll do all he can to put himself in a position to come back when he can,” Reaves said.
Reaves also detailed his own struggles early in the game, noting, “I did a poor job starting the game. I had a couple turnovers back to back and I think I had four in that first quarter. I just got to do better, give ourselves a better opportunity to get to a better start.” He added that halftime treatment allowed him to continue playing despite overextending on a rebound.
The Lakers committed eight turnovers in the first seven and a half minutes, and Reaves framed it as a learning opportunity. “We’ll watch film either tomorrow or Saturday and learn from this and then move forward,” he said. He also stressed the importance of maintaining a playoff mindset. “Just continue to do what we have been doing. We’ve been really good recently. Tonight was obviously not what we wanted, but we don’t need to overlook the fact that we’ve been playing good basketball and what we’re capable of.”
Reaves addressed the challenge of facing the defending champions amid recent team struggles. “They beat the sh*t out of us, but they’re the defending champs. We’ve got to be better. Losing always sucks. It doesn’t matter if you lose by one or 50. A loss is a loss. It’s kind of how I look at it,” he said.
Thursday’s game saw Shai Gilgeous-Alexander score 28 points to lead the Thunder, while Isaiah Joe added 20 with six 3-pointers. The Lakers, missing much of their offensive flow, had LeBron James score 13 and Reaves 15. Doncic had scored at least 40 points in five of his previous seven games but finished with 12 on 3-of-10 shooting before leaving due to injury.
The Lakers will visit the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, while the Thunder host the Utah Jazz, keeping pace in the Western Conference playoff race.
