On Saturday evening, the Los Angeles Lakers picked up their most thrilling win of the 2025-26 season with a home victory over the Denver Nuggets. Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic were both heroes of this game, with Reaves saving the day down the stretch of regulation to get the contest into overtime, and Doncic winning it when they got there with a tough mid-range jumper.
Reaves' play was one of the wildest of the season for the Lakers, as he intentionally missed a free throw down by two with five seconds left, tracked down the rebound, and floated it into the basket to tie the game.
After the game, Reaves and Doncic both weighed in on the epic play.
“I mean, I knew I was going to miss,” said Reaves, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. “I wasn't going to give the ball an opportunity to go in. Some people shoot it high, and they end up making it on accident. But I don't think my ball ever got over 10 feet.”
“It was very hard to do, and just for him to tie the game, that gave us the win, basically,” Doncic said. “That execution was perfection.”
Indeed, many players have tried and failed to do exactly what Reaves did on Saturday, which is miss a free throw on purpose in order to secure the rebound and score the ball.
It certainly helped matters that the Nuggets only had three players in the paint instead of the four they were allowed on the play, and Reaves' miss found the exact spot where Denver had opted to vacate, making things relatively seamless from there.
In any case, the Lakers will next hit the floor on Monday evening for a tough road game against the Houston Rockets.
