Austin Reaves left Crypto.com Arena with a painful playoff loss, but not with regrets about the way the Los Angeles Lakers fought. After Oklahoma City completed a 115-110 sweep in Game 4 on Monday night, Reaves said the group stayed united through a season that repeatedly tested it.
“It’s been fun. It’s been a joy. It’s been a grind,” Reaves said. “A lot of things didn’t go our way this season and there was a lot of opportunities for us to quit and that’s not who we got in the locker room or the organization.”
Reaves pointed to the moment the Lakers’ season changed, when he and Luka Doncic went down in the same game in Oklahoma City. From there, he said, the response showed what kind of team Los Angeles really had.
“He touched on that OKC game in OKC when we lost, I got hurt, Luka got hurt,” Reaves said. “We go to Dallas, we lose. I’ve been around the NBA for five years now. I know a lot of teams would have given up then and that wasn’t the case with this team.”
The Lakers still pushed the Thunder hard in Game 4, forcing Oklahoma City into its first fourth-quarter deficit of the entire postseason. Reaves scored 27 points and had one last chance to extend the game, but his tying 3-pointer with eight seconds left missed.
Reaves said the fight that defined the night matched the fight that defined the season.
“It’s been fun to go to work every single day,” he said. “Love this team.”
The 27-year-old guard also delivered the best season of his career, and he knows there is still more room to grow. “This has obviously been my best season since I’ve been a pro,” Reaves said. “The numbers and stuff, yeah, I mean I always feel like that’s the beautiful thing about basketball is there’s always opportunities and areas that you can continue to grow.”
Reaves was equally open about the uncertainty ahead, but he did not sound distracted by it. “I’m going to be honest,” he said. “I don’t think about much. I take life day by day and I’m just blessed to have an opportunity to play for this organization.”
The biggest emotional thread in Reaves’ comments came when he discussed LeBron James, who remains undecided about next season. Reaves has played his entire NBA career alongside James, and he made clear how much that relationship has shaped him.
“It would mean the world to me,” Reaves said. “He took me under his wing and gave me every opportunity that I could ever ask for.”
He added that James has meant far more than a teammate. “He’s taught me a lot. I owe him a lot for my career,” Reaves said. “Even after I missed the three to tie the game, he was walking by and said, ‘Hell of a shot.’”
For Reaves, the season ended in defeat, but his message was clear: the Lakers did not fold, and he believes the foundation they built can still matter going forward.
