Despite the Los Angeles Lakers' struggles in the Western Conference Finals, Austin Reaves has been a true revelation for the team. In fact, with his Game 3 performance on Saturday night, he reached a statistical feat that only LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Michael Jordan have done before.
Reaves finished with 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists in their 119-108 loss to the Nuggets in Game 3. He also made 70 percent of his shots from the field, including a 3-of-5 shooting clip from deep. With that, he has now recorded three straight games with at least 20 points and five assists on top of a 65 true shooting percentage.
As mentioned, only James, Curry and Jordan have done it before in the conference finals, per reporter Justin Russo. Even better, throughout the 2023 playoffs, Reaves has now recorded seven 20-point games. That is said to be the most of such games for an undrafted player in the modern era (1966), via Crazy Stats.
Austin Reaves is set to become a restricted free agent this offseason, but with the way he has played so far and how he has fit in alongside LeBron James, he has certainly transformed himself to be an indispensable asset for the Lakers.
The issue now, however, is whether the Lakers can keep him or not. Since he has been playing so well, there are teams who are expected to make a run for him and offer him a substantial pay raise that the Purple and Gold might find hard to match.
It will be disastrous for LA if they end up losing Reaves, but at the end of the day, they can't do anything more if the price to keep up goes up and proves to be too rich even for them.
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