Austin Reaves discusses key tactic to negate Lakers' lack of size against Minnesota
The LA Lakers are set to play a seven-game series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs. The Lakers have home-court advantage entering the postseason after they finished the 2024-25 campaign as the third seed. Austin Reaves, who will appear for the third time in the playoffs, is "ready to go to war" with his teammates.
On Wednesday, the team practiced for the matchup against the Anthony Edwards-led team. L.A. also addressed the media ahead of the start of the postseason, which will be on Saturday.
Reaves talked about the team's tactics against the Wolves. Minnesota lasted five games in the Western Conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks. Fortunately for the Lakers, they have Luka Doncic, the leading scorer for Dallas last year.
According to the 6-foot-5 guard, the team's strategy against the Wolves will be to play extremely hard. Los Angeles lacks the size to match up against Minnesota's frontcourt of Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle and Naz Reid. Reaves recognizes how important it is to play with vigor, especially in the playoffs, where the team's lack of size will be exposed.
"You just got to play hard as s**t," Reaves said, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "Every possession, you win by the smallest margin or you lose by the smallest margin in the playoffs, as we could tell from last year.
"We got a group of guys that are ready to go to war. There's a difference in being ready to go to war by yourself and being ready to go to war with your team. You're locked in as a group and ready to go compete."
Reaves is one of the Lakers' most important players heading into the playoffs. During the regular season, the undrafted guard was the team's third-leading scorer. He averaged 20.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists in 73 games.
LeBron James' agent believes the Lakers guard is the X factor in the postseason
On Tuesday's edition of "The Pat McAfee Show," LeBron James' agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, said the upcoming Lakers-Timberwolves series won't be easy for both teams.
Paul said that Anthony Edwards has the talent and skill to lead Minnesota. However, he countered it by saying James and Luka Doncic are also capable and elite offensive threats.
After that, Paul said that Reaves could be the X factor for the team (Timestamp: 7:10).
In Reaves' two postseason appearances, he's always delivered with his scoring. In 2023, he averaged 16.9 ppg, 4.4 rpg and 4.6 apg on 46.4% shooting through 16 games.
Last year, the Lakers didn't advance to the second round. However, Reaves still made the most of the five games they played against the Denver Nuggets. He averaged 16.8 ppg, 3.8 rpg and 3.6 apg on 47.6% shooting.