Austin Reaves reveals the teammate that helped him get out of his slump vs. the Clippers

The Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves has had problems this season to find his shooting, especially after playing this summer at the FIBA World Cup with Team USA.

Reaves had a breakout season in 2022-23 and now has been struggling to replicate the offensive production he had, especially in the playoffs. In the first four games of this campaign, Reaves's production was poor.

But on Wednesday night he was able to bounce back in the second half of the game vs. the LA Clippers, scoring 15 points with seven rebounds and seven assists.

“I haven’t played bad, I just haven’t made shots,” Reaves said. “And for me, like you said that there’s a million other things you can do on the court to help your team that not the normal fan, or someone that doesn’t really know basketball understands, and people pull up box scores, and they look or he went 2-for-15, it could be anybody and it’s, ‘Ah, he played trash.’ And that’s partially true. Because as an athlete, player, or anybody, you want to make shots. I hold myself to a high standard when it comes to that, but no athlete ever went through their whole career and played perfectly. So you have these things happen, and you just got to figure out a way to get through it.”

Austin Reaves' teammate that helped him bounce back

Reaves spoke on how D'Angelo Russell helped him fight through the early struggles: “I mean, it felt really good to see a shot go in. Made my first one, and then I missed, like, six in a row. But making the baseline jumper or coming off the ball screen off a little jumper and then the baseline jumper just felt good. And shout out to DLo for constantly being in my ear this whole time. ‘Forget all of that. You’re a really good basketball player. Don’t let that slip. You go do what you’re supposed to do.’ And like I’ve said, you go through stretches like this, and you had to fight your way out. And that’s what I’m doing.”