A member of the Los Angeles Lakers obtained MVP chants throughout Friday’s 126-108 victory over the Denver Nuggets, but it surely in all probability wasn’t who you are considering.
It wasn’t Anthony Davis, the Laker enjoying most like an MVP to date this season. It wasn’t LeBron James or Russell Westbrook — two precise former MVPs — although they deserved such reward with 45 mixed factors, 20 mixed rebounds and 16 complete rebounds. And it wasn’t even the participant who shares a final identify with former Lakers MVP winner Kobe Bryant, although the much less well-known Thomas Bryant thrived with 21 factors in maybe his greatest outing of the season.
No, the MVP chants have been for second-year undrafted guard Austin Reaves who had simply scored his tenth consecutive level within the second quarter to chop a nine-point deficit right down to 4 by ending a layup in visitors and drawing a foul within the course of. The followers rewarded him with maybe the very best honor they’ll bestow upon one in every of their very own.
Reaves scored solely six extra factors in the remainder of the sport, however the followers within the constructing acknowledged the significance of that streak. The Lakers have developed a nasty behavior of blowing huge leads in startlingly transient intervals of time. That development culminated on Tuesday when the Lakers watched a 13-point fourth-quarter lead evaporate within the last 4 minutes towards Boston, and after watching the Lakers flip a nine-point lead into an an identical deficit within the second quarter, that development was rearing its ugly head as soon as once more. For a couple of minutes, Reaves stepped up and was the very best participant on the courtroom. Soon after, he ceded the place to a teammate.
In the third quarter, it was Dennis Schroder, who scored 10 factors to elevate the Lakers out of yet one more gap and ship them into the fourth answerable for the sport. Rookie Max Christie adopted it up by bringing the constructing down with back-to-back clutch 3-pointers. Westbrook, who notched his 196th profession triple double, sealed the win with maybe his most full quarter of the season. James crammed in each hole. Bryant crammed within the greatest.
Anthony Davis suffered a proper foot damage within the first half. He did not play within the second. Bryant made nine-of-11 pictures in reduction obligation whereas defending the two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, and within the course of shined as one of many brightest stars of what might need been the very best team-wide efficiency of the season. Seven Lakers scored in double figures. The bench poured in 58 factors. The Lakers blew the Nuggets out by 22 factors within the minutes that Davis did not get to play.
It’s a startling quantity contemplating the trajectory of this season. The Lakers have been 11 factors per 100 possessions worse with Davis on the bench this season coming into Friday’s recreation. They usually survive with him and wilt with out him. Their season survived largely on his again. After the staff began 2-10, he averaged 32 factors and 14 rebounds per recreation to elevate them again inside spitting distance of .500. Many of these video games got here with little to no ancillary help. James and Davis mixed to take greater than half of the staff’s pictures in Tuesday’s loss to Boston. They had no different alternative. Their teammates shot 38 % from the ground and 31 % from deep.
That method was unsustainable. It was evident in the course of the Boston collapse. Davis performed the whole second half and all of extra time. His damage Friday was virtually definitely a coincidence, but it surely was a symbolic one. Sooner or later, the staff’s reliance on Davis was going to be punished. No participant can do what Davis has finished recently 82 occasions, particularly one with the damage historical past he has. Eventually, this staff was going to be examined with out him.
And on Friday, the Lakers handed that check with flying colours. They beat one of many NBA’s greatest groups with out their greatest participant, and within the course of proved that pretty much as good as Davis has been for the previous month, this staff does not must be a one-man present. Reaves might have gotten the MVP chants, however in fact, just about everybody on the roster deserved them sooner or later in what might need been the very best Laker victory of the season.
