Austin Reaves has quietly been one of the Los Angeles Lakers’ best players so far this season.
Throughout a largely disappointing 2022-23 NBA campaign for his team, he has been a bright spot.
The trend continued on Friday night.
In the Lakers’ most recent outing, a battle against the Detroit Pistons, Reaves made headlines in more ways than one.
First came this encounter he had with some beautiful courtside fans:
Austin Reaves ran into some baddies in the first row and turned into Kobe 😹
— Michael🇲🇽 (@Bronco_Hater) November 19, 2022
NBA Twitter reacted immediately:
calling it now: “austin reaves runs into baddies courtside and proceeds to GO OFF” pic.twitter.com/Q1YV7FjrRG
— ryan (@LuckiIntern) November 19, 2022
Austin Reaves after slamming into the Baddies sitting courtside pic.twitter.com/YLwl2lQubh
— Russ’ TD (@RussFcb) November 19, 2022
Austin Reaves after running into those baddies: pic.twitter.com/oRBJhkvysE
— Carlton Banks’ Burner (@cbanksburner) November 19, 2022
Remember when austin reaves saw them baddies sitting courtside and tutned into 2016 Steph
— (@ASAPKiryu) November 19, 2022
austin reaves saw them baddies courtside and went for it
— wherestheball97 (@wheretheball97) November 19, 2022
Remember that time Austin Reaves saw the baddies sitting courtside then turned into prime Steve Nash https://t.co/lN1SGPd4wg
— Terhide (@Terhiide) November 19, 2022
Then Reaves finished the night with 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc. He also chipped in 6 assists and 4 rebounds.
So far this season he is averaging 9 points per game on 49.4 percent shooting from the field and 37.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc. To say he stepped his game up after his encounter with those courtside girls on Friday night isn’t an overstatement.
It will be interesting to see where the Lakers go from here. They have finally won two in a row, but remain at the bottom of the Western Conference.
Fans are tuning out, too. They’re more into ogling cheerleaders in the stands than what’s happening on the court these days.
If L.A. can rack up some more wins here, maybe they will be able to restore some semblance of respectability to the franchise.
Alex Morgan’s outfit caused a stir.https://t.co/oQhTUOI1c0
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 18, 2022
But based on everything that we have seen thus far, it also wouldn’t be all that shocking to see them lose five in a row.
How will Reaves and the Lakers play going forward?
Time will tell.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
