For Austin Reaves, winning shorthanded vs. OKC had significant importance for the following games

While most thought that the Los Angeles Lakers had their Wednesday night game against the OKC Thunder lost because they were playing without LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and D'Angelo Russell, they forgot that these aren't all the same players that started the season.

The Lakers won primarily because of a tremendous second half of Dennis Schroder, who returned to play after spraining his ankle, and Austin Reaves, who came off the bench, has been giving some solid performances.

With the deck stacked firmly against the Lakers, they managed a victory. Reaves was pleased with the way players stepped up in the absence of three vital pieces of the Lakers scheme via Spectrum SportsNet:

"Any time you play without your three most ball-dominant guys that you run mostly everything through, the game will be a little — I don't want to say awkward — it's just a lot of new situations for guys, including myself. So I think for us to come in and get a win, regarding that situation, it's a big win and a big-time performance from us. It was a much-needed win, and we gutted it out." Said, Reaves.

Reaves also recognized the OKC, who played without two of their best players

"It's huge. And I mean, they didn't have Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander), but they have a lot of talent. Young talent that knows how to play the game and plays hard. They're not a bad team at all, but we needed this win, and we knew that coming in. We spoke about this before, we're not going to have AD, Bron, and DLo, which contribute most of the on-ball work with Dennis (Schroder). But it was huge for us to come in here and gut out a win. And now we move on to the next." Said Austin.