The Los Angeles Lakers left a matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder sound, winning 116-104 in a game that L.A. controlled every step of the way.
The hostile exhibition by D’Angelo Russell was the significant storyline, yet hotshots LeBron James and Anthony Davis zeroed in on the opposite finish of the floor, where Austin Reaves managed the troublesome errand of monitoring Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Gilgeous-Alexander, the 6th year genius, is averaging 31.1 focuses, 5.6 bounce back and 6.5 helps with an association driving 2.2 takes per game on 54.6/38.3/88.2 shooting parts. But, against Reaves and the Lakers on Monday, he oversaw just 20 focuses and four helps on 5-for-13 shooting. It was his most memorable sub-30-point execution since Feb. 10 and his absolute bottom all out since Jan. 16. James credited Reaves for his heavenly exertion against Gilgeous-Alexander, particularly with Reaves’ guarded battles turning out to be a greater amount of an area of center this season.
He just took the test,” James said. “All in all, clearly Shai is quite possibly of the best player we have in our association. He was simply doing whatever it takes not to put him on the free-toss line since that is where he gets a ton of his focuses from as well. I thought Austin was electrifying beginning to end when he was on the floor simply attempting to contain the ball and making Shai and J-Will make extreme efforts, Giddey now and again. Also, we just attempted to safeguard him toward the back.”
Davis, the Lakers’ best guarded player and truly outstanding in the association on that finish of the floor, additionally praises what Reaves did against the Thunder MVP competitor. “No doubt, he worked really hard of moving his feet realizing that Shai likes to get to his opposite between similar to a little push off and get to his middy or get to the path utilizes siphon fakes and draw fouls and that’s what things like,” Davis said. “So I figure we worked effectively now risking him they as of now going to make extreme shots, yet you would rather not battle that would risk him also now to sort of get it moving.
So he worked effectively getting going on him, simply making it extreme for himself and piping him to our protection and get extraordinary challenges and they missed a few shots early. He made several makes light of late. Yet, AR worked really hard.”
Davis and James are dependably quick to commend the Lakers’ job players when they succeed in a given matchup, and Reaves surely did that against the Thunder. It was seemingly his best cautious execution of the time, and it came when the Lakers genuinely required it most. Austin Reaves acclaims D’Angelo Russell The Lakers were all great energies after their success against the Thunder, and Reaves — who dazzled protectively — set aside some margin to adulate Russell for his work on the opposite end.
The way that he gets his containers in sprays like that when he gets hot is something lovely to see,” Reaves said of Russell after the success. “On the off chance that you roll back the tape, when he got the ball, me and Promotion stood up and we realized it was going up in any event, when he passed it. We realized Bron planned to give it back to him and we realized it was going up and when he let it go, it looked great. “Yet, definitely, in the event that I can go 4-for-5 and it gets eclipsed by anything we do, I’ll be the first to be content about that.”
