Lakers Austin Reaves uncovers key aspect of return, goes down the list

If the last week was the regular season, Austin Reaves would’ve been on the court with his Lakers teammates sooner than Thursday.But the reality is that it’s still the preseason – and will be for another 1 ½ weeks, and two more games. Which meant there was no need for the Lakers to rush their star guard back onto the floor after he suffered a minor ankle injury during practice last week.“There was a chance he might be able to play in either of those games in Northern California,” Coach JJ Redick said of Reaves ahead of the Lakers’ 114-110 win over the Kings at Crypto.com Arena.“We knew it’d be sometime this week.”Reaves made his long-awaited preseason debut in the Lakers’ preseason home-opening win over the Kings, providing the first glimpse of how the team’s starting backcourt will look with the team built out around him and superstar guard Luka Doncic.And he hardly missed a beat, dishing out 8 assists and grabbing 5 rebounds in 25 minutes during a night in which he struggled with his shot (8 points on 2-of-7 shooting). “Obviously very nice to have Austin out there,” Redick said.

“He did a great job [of] play-making and played overall just a nice floor game.”Reaves was already acquainted and familiar with Doncic after being teammates for 1 ½ years before Reaves re-signed with the Lakers on a four-year, $180 million contract during this past offseason. Their friendship on and off the court is well-documented.But Thursday was the first time Reaves shared the court with many of his new Lakers teammates – from Quentin Grimes and Kevon Looney (both of whom started on Thursday) to Sandro Mamukelashvili and Matisse Thybulle. “They were awesome,” Reaves said about his teammates.“Matisse has been great, Mamu was great, Jake’s been really good.

Could go down the list.Very excited with what we have.”The Lakers are hoping to get a better look at their entire team in one of their final two preseason games before their regular-s...