Austin Reaves steps up in Luka Doncic’s absence to lead Lakers over Pistons
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DETROIT — The Lakers’ star guard banked in a fadeaway three-pointer. He nailed a clutch step-back with 44.5 seconds left. He trash-talked with fans.
No, Austin Reaves.
Reaves embodied Doncic in almost every way Sunday, leading the Lakers to a 121-116 win over the Detroit Pistons as Doncic sat out with low back tightness. The Lakers replaced the guard averaging a league-high 40.1 points with Reaves’ season-high 43 points, four assists and five rebounds.
The Lakers (9-2) needed every bit of Reaves’ magic. Their 26-point second-quarter lead nearly evaporated under an avalanche of second-half turnovers and 55 combined points from Detroit bench guards Daniss Jenkins and Kevin Huerter.
Fresh off a max contract extension, Reaves has had a quiet yet ruthlessly efficient start to the year in Doncic’s shadow. Doncic is getting most valuable player chants each time he steps to the free throw line. Reaves, averaging 25.3 points per game on 50.8% shooting from the field and 41.3% from three, has at times looked clumsy while getting comfortable with new teammates in the minutes without Doncic.
Lakers guard Luka Doncic’s teammates and opposing coaches are in awe of his blistering scoring so far this season, fueling early support for MVP honors.
He looked comfortable in the starring role again Sunday. Reaves hit a seemingly impossible baseline fadeaway in the first quarter, flinging the ball almost over the backboard. When two fans sitting opposite the Lakers’ bench started chirping at Reaves, he bent down, put his hands on his knees during a stoppage of play and talked directly at them for several seconds.
Doncic, dressed in black pants and a gray jacket, took it all in from the sideline.
“Sometimes when they’re playing together, AR kind of has to take a secondary role,” said center Walker Kessler, who had 12 points and 16 rebounds, including a clutch put-back, three-point play that put the Lakers up by eight with 2:15 remaining. “But I mean, as you can see now, he’s very capable. He’s a heck of a playmaker, heck of a scorer and a competitor.”
On the front side of a back-to-back, Doncic missed his second game of the season with low back tightness, although Lakers coach JJ Redick said he didn’t anticipate it to affect Doncic significantly throughout the season.
The Slovenian superstar is averaging a league-high 40.1 points per game, but Doncic was doing more than just scoring at rates not seen since Wilt Chamberlain. His estimated on/off of 37.7 — the difference between the Lakers’ net rating when he was on the court compared to off — was the second-highest in the league, following only Victor Wembanyama’s 41.5. In addition to having the highest scoring average through nine games since Chamberlain, Doncic is the team’s second-leading rebounder at 7.8 per game and is second with 1.7 steals.
But the Lakers already showed they could compete without Doncic this season. They dominated the Clippers on Oct. 28 when he was sidelined, also with back tightness.
Just as they did against the Clippers, the Lakers needed contributions from everyone. Ziaire Williams hit four three-pointers and finished with 17 points. Collin Sexton, serving as the Lakers’ second ball-handler, had 17 points on five-of-10 shooting.
Jarred Vanderbilt’s energetic six rebounds, two assists and one block in less than six minutes during the first quarter helped lift the Lakers to a 26-point lead early in the second.
The Lakers’ superstar is on an MVP pace like few others before, but to win an NBA title he has to have sustainability that his teammates must help him attain.
The Pistons, playing without All-NBA center Jalen Duren (hamstring), didn’t get their first points from star point guard Cade Cunningham until early in the third quarter. Instead, Jenkins nearly mounted the comeback on his own.
Jenkins, a familiar Lakers foe who scored 30 points in Detroit’s win over the Lakers here last year, scored 22 points of his career-high 31 in the first half, cutting the Lakers’ 26-point lead to 13 by halftime. He drained a three-pointer at the buzzer that injected life into the antsy home crowd. The Lakers, who have benefited from two halftime buzzer-beating heaves from Doncic this season, know what it’s like to be on the other side of that momentum swing.
Pistons fans banging inflatable thunder sticks erupted in the third quarter as Detroit ripped off an 11-0 run to close the lead to three with 1:03 remaining in the quarter. The Lakers, playing with Sexton as their primary ballhandler during the stretch, had four turnovers during the drought, including a shot clock violation after a timeout.
Reaves rested from the sideline during the slide, but Redick stayed committed to the pre-determined rotation matrix to ensure star players get their necessary breaks.
“If you start just overreacting in-game and saying ‘I gotta get this guy back in, I gotta get this guy back in,’ it’s just chaos,” Redick said. “And we’re trying to create consistency for our players.”
Redick called Reaves “Mr. Consistency” earlier this season. He had 13 points in the third quarter, including five straight on difficult fadeway jumpers that pushed the lead to 17 with 6:41 to go in the third. After his step-back three from the wing kissed off the glass and rattled through the rim, Reaves shrugged.
“It was 100% lucky,” Reaves said. “Honestly, when I stepped back and shot it, I was like, ‘this is some bull— Luka would shoot.’”
Reaves shot Doncic’s shots and then talked Doncic’s talk. After hitting the dagger shot to put the Lakers up by eight with 44.5 seconds left, Reaves turned and waved goodbye directly to the two fans sitting courtside.
