Lakers News: NBA Twitter Is Loving Team USA-Era Austin Reaves
Los Angeles Lakers starting shooting guard Austin Reaves is impressing hoops heads with his engaging output for Team USA thus far. He was once again a key contributor in the club's third straight "warm-up" exhibition game win, this time a 98-88 effort against Team Spain in Spain, on Sunday. He scored 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field, grabbed two boards, and dished out two dimes.
Reaves is enjoying a heck of a start for Team USA in these warm-up games. Through three exhibition contests so far, he's averaging 10 points on 57.1% field goal shooting, 3.7 rebounds, and 3.3 assists off the bench.
To be fair, games actually start to count toward the tournament starting on August 25th, Team USA's first game that matters is the 26th. But the fact that Reaves looks this good this early is pretty encouraging, and the basketball world has noticed.
Check out this excellent drive through a row of Team Spain defenders to carve out an open (ish) floater beneath the bucket:
Reaves' passing acumen was also singled out for praise:
Longtime Los Angeles fan LakersGuru celebrated Reaves' second-half play as the contest got tenuous:
Sportswear merch maker and Lakers super-fan Golden Knight made a comp between Reaves and a certainly Hall of Fame, four-time champion lefty shooting guard:
Another Hall of Fame shooting guard a bit closer to Los Angeles fans' hearts was also invoked by another fan:
Even 2020 Lakers champion forward Kyle Kuzma, who seems to pay special attention to his old club (he does, after all, live in LA during the offseason) but never overlapped with Reaves on a Los Angeles roster, weighed in:
Check out full highlights of Team USA's performance below, via the NBA's official YouTub channel:
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