And while he’d earned coach Frank Vogel’s trust up to this point in the season, the main reason Reaves was logging 9½ minutes in the fourth quarter on Wednesday plus the entire five minutes of overtime was because L.A.
When Reaves received the pass from Russell Westbrook and let it fly from the right wing with 1.0 second left in the extra session, however, the context was inconsequential.
“I mean, it’s basically been the story of my life,” Reaves said afterward.
The shot gave Reaves 15 points for the game, setting a new career high in scoring, and was his fifth made 3-pointer in six attempts.
When the group made it back to the locker room, LeBron James presented him with the game ball, and DeAndre Jordan snuck up behind Reaves to dump a bucket of ice water on the rookie to celebrate.
“You don’t see that much, especially with the type of guys that we have on this team — six Hall of Famers and then all the guys that have been in the league for 10-12 years.
It was an outright exhibit of exuberance for a Lakers team that hasn’t had much to feel great about this season.
“It hasn’t gone as everyone else has hoped it would,” James said of the Lakers’ season, now 16-13 and No.
I try to just stay level-headed throughout everything regardless of who I’m playing or what teammate I’m playing with.