The Los Angeles Lakers have tapped into something over the last couple of months, going from under .500 at the beginning of February to ten games over .500 now after winning seven of the past eight games.
Despite the recent upswing, LA is still seeded 9th and will likely find themselves in the play-in tournament once again, but one analyst is calling out one of the team’s best players for not pulling his own weight lately.
Keyshawn Johnson said on “Undisputed” today that shooting guard Austin Reaves needs to “be more consistent” and added that “he hasn’t played well since the Bucks game.”
The Lakers have played four games since beating the Bucks on March 26, and since then Reaves has made just two of his 20 three-point attempts.
It’s an unreasonable sample size, as every player has stretches of at least four or five games where their shot is off, and if you zoom out just a bit, it’s obvious how well Reaves has been playing for the last two months when the Lakers have been consistently winning.
In March, Reaves averaged 17.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 6.6 assists per game on 48/38/86 shooting splits after shooting 41.5 percent from three in February.
The Lakers as a whole have been on fire from deep in recent weeks, with D’Angelo Russell and LeBron James leading the charge.
James is shooting a career-high 41.7 percent from three-point range this season, while Russell is shooting 42.9 percent since the All-Star break.
Reaves will be just fine, and while a four-game slump is enough to scream about on a morning talk show, it is not nearly enough to cause legitimate concern.
