Austin Reaves’ brother gives hilarious solution to end Lakers’ shooting woes
In Friday night's win over the Philadelphia 76ers, Austin Reaves logged twenty points on 53.8% from the field and 60.0% from downtown. For Reaves, the game was his best of the month so far after shooting at or below 30.0% from beyond the arc in Los Angeles' three most recent games leading up to Friday's showdown.
In addition, LA, who has been in the bottom half of the league in team shooting percentages, shot 51.8% from the field and 45.7% from three. After the game, Austin Reaves told media members his brother had been texting him shooting advice.
From the sounds of things, the advice paid off, with Spencer Reaves taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday to offer the Lakers his services as an online shooting coach:
"If the Lakers want to hire me an as Online Shooting Coach, I’d be willing to take that call. Happy to wake up to the good news."
In addition to Austin Reaves' impressive play, Anthony Davis led the way for LA with 31 points, nine boards and four blocks. At the same time, LeBron James logged a triple-double with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists as the Lakers picked up a 116–106 win.
Austin Reaves opens up on Lakers' 45.7% shooting night from downtown in win over Philadelphia
Austin Reaves and the Lakers' win on Friday extended the team's record to 5-4, keeping them above .500 for the season. They are sitting in eighth place in the Western Conference alongside the Houston Rockets, LA Clippers, Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings, who all have 5-4 records.
While LA got off to a hot start to the year by winning three straight games, it has since struggled to maintain the same level of consistent play. Since then, the team has gone just 1-4, falling to the Suns, Cavaliers, Pistons and Grizzlies, while defeating the Toronto Raptors prior to Friday's win.
Much like last season, streaky 3-point shooting has been a major talking point among fans. As Austin Reaves told media members, sometimes the shots simply aren't falling:
"It's a miss and make league. You're gonna go through times where you feel like you can't miss, and you're gonna go through times where you feel like you can't make one. And, I mean, you even look at Dalton going 1-8, 0-5 from 3. He had a lot of really good looks.
"And two or three of them, I know, touched the rim three or four times and rattled out. So if he makes those, then we shoot even higher percentage. And we're obviously still encouraging him to shoot every good look he gets because he can shoot it. I think it just is a testament to us playing good basketball."
Following Friday's win, the team will return to action on Sunday when it faces the Toronto Raptors in its second of three-straight home games.