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Austin Reaves is made of some sturdy stuff. The Los Angeles Lakers guard took an elbow from Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga to the face in the first half of Saturday night’s game at Chase Center but stayed in the game.
Austin Reaves even managed to go 1-for-2 from the foul line for that flagrant foul by Kuminga.
“Austin Reaves is tough. Always stays in there and takes contact … in this case, a flagrant elbow from Kuminga,” reports Mike Trudell. “Reaves split a pair of resulting FT’s, and stays in the game.”
The Lakers staff attended to Austin Reaves after the hit but deemed it was not serious enough to force him to go for a quick trip to the locker room.
It was just the other day when Austin Reaves made it to several highlight reels by crossing over and leaving in the dust Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounpo for a layup — albeit in a Lakers loss — and he was not going to allow a mere hit in the face to keep him out of the Warriors game in search of another highlight play while trying to help Los Angeles stop a three-game losing skid.
Reaves, a product of the Oklahoma Sooners program, has been a pleasant surprise for the Lakers this season. He entered the Warriors game averaging 10.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game while shooting nearly 50 percent from the field and providing the Lakers with decent shooting from behind the arc — and perhaps most importantly, toughness.