Austin Reaves and the Los Angeles Lakers are 17-17 after 34 games this year.
Coming into the season, many envisioned them riding the momentum from last year’s Western Conference Finals run into a championship campaign. Thus far, that hasn’t happened.
To make matters worse, in addition to struggling on the court, L.A. is also embarrassing itself off it as well.
Last week reports surfaced that Lakers coach Darvin Ham doesn’t like Reaves. Given that Los Angeles literally just signed the 25-year-old to a deal this past summer, that doesn’t bode well for any of the parties involved.
On Sunday, the Lakers got blown out by the New Orleans Pelicans 129-109. Reaves finished with 20 points and 9 assists in the losing effort, but obviously it wasn’t enough.
In the aftermath, Reaves spoke to the media and got brutally honest about the Lakers’ woes.
“I want to win and that’s the main goal at the end of the day.” Austin Reaves speaks on the Lakers’ recent struggles and how to get better. pic.twitter.com/6bNxmgmO9L
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) January 1, 2024
“I want to win and that’s the main goal at the end of the day wins and losses is why you play the game,” he said.
“You want to win. And as a team, I believe that you know what our goal is to do is win. And you know since the in-season tournament we’ve been struggling. Health, you know injuries, sickness, you know we’ve kind of had some bad fortune there.
“But at the end of the day it happens to everybody and we got to look in the mirror and you know see what we can do to be better what I could do to be better and you know just get better.”
This week the Lakers were linked to a blockbuster three-team trade.
Brittany Mahomes Shares Wild 2024 New Year’s Party Photos: https://t.co/TexkWj2QFG
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 1, 2024
If they pull it off, it could save their whole season.
Should that not occur, though – things might get a lot worse before they get better.
Can Reaves and the Lakers get back on track to start 2024? Time will tell.
Related: Vanessa Bryant Shows How She Brought In New Year’s 2024 (Photos)
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
