The Los Angeles Lakers suffered one of their most disappointing losses of the season on Tuesday night, getting blown out by a Dallas Mavericks team that was without Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
Austin Reaves, in particular, had a really rough game for the Lakers as he finished with 15 points, two rebounds, one assist and three steals on 5-of-14 shooting. He was a game-worst -25 and the main reason for that was the Mavericks were targeting him on defense nearly every possession.
Reaves’ inability to defend led to numerous Dallas runs, including one when the Lakers were in a zone in order to protect the guard from getting hunted.
After the game, Reaves admitted he didn’t play well and discussed what he can do when teams are targeting him like that, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“Just play better defense. First half was god awful. Second half I thought was better. But just can’t allow that. I was really bad on both sides of the ball tonight.”
Reaves also admitted that the Lakers may have been a bit too relaxed going into the game knowing they were going against a shorthanded group:
“It’s a real thing but it’s not like they don’t have good players other than Luka and Kyrie. Those guys over there are talented and obviously can win games, as you just saw. We just didn’t do a good job of playing good basketball. That’s really it.”
After dropping back-to-back games in Texas, the Lakers now return home where they will stay for two weeks. Reaves discussed how beneficial that can be for the team although concluded it ultimately comes down to their play of the court:
“It’s always good to be home. Sleep in your own bed, be around your friends, family, whatever. But just playing good basketball. I thought tonight defensively we didn’t talk enough. Offensively, we didn’t make shots. But I think it kind of stemmed from being discombobulated on the defensive end. So just gotta get back to clicking on all cylinders and playing the game the right way.”
Reaves has always been one to take accountability for his poor play and that was again the case after the Mavericks loss. As the Lakers return home, they will need some strong performances from him moving forward so hopefully it was just a one-off game in Dallas and he and the rest of the team can get back on track.
JJ Redick not sure what Lakers were doing defensively vs. Mavericks
After the loss to the Mavericks, head coach JJ Redick admitted that he wasn’t sure what the Lakers were trying to do defensively as they got torched by a team missing two stars.
“I’m not sure what our rotations were, I never saw us trying to execute what we were doing,” Redick admitted. “I haven’t watched the film yet, just watching it live and talking to the assistants who did watch on film, we’re not sure what was going on with the shift positioning and rotations. Never seen it before.”
