Austin Reaves made history as the Los Angeles Lakers reclaimed the third seed in the stacked Western Conference with a 124-108 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday.
Reaves became the first Lakers player in franchise history to total at least 15 3-pointers over a two-game span.
Austin Reaves becomes the first Lakers player in franchise history to total 15+ 3PM over a 2-game span. https://t.co/6eJZgvG9wa pic.twitter.com/yQB0qSp0W6
— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) April 5, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
What makes the historic feat more impressive is he did it on back-to-back nights.
Reaves hit six 3s against the Pelicans after making nine against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night. The Lakers’ rising star finished with 30 points on an efficient 8-of-13 shooting and seven assists. He was a game-high plus-17 on the floor.
“It’s special,” Reaves told reporters about his historic feat. “LeBron throws me good passes. Luka throws me good passes and I just shoot it. I just shoot them with confidence. That’s really it but it’s special.”
Austin Reaves Matches Kobe Feat
Reaves also became the first Lakers player since the late Kobe Bryant in 2012 to average at least 25 points on 50/40-90 shooting split over any 10-game span, per StatMamba.
Over his last 10 games, Reaves averaged 25.3 points, 5.2 assists, and 4.9 rebounds while shooting 53.5% from the field, 40.7% from beyond the arc, and 94.1% from the free-throw line.
“I think he’s just playing with a very, very high level of confidence right now,” Lakers coach JJ Redick told reporters. “And I think the freedom that he’s played with for most of the season if not all of the season has just allowed him room to grow and I think he continues to develop patience for when things aren’t happening early for him just knowing that he’s going to end up with 15 to 20 shots.
“That’s just the way our team is structured and I thought last night was a great example of that offensively for him and he was terrific tonight.”
The arrival of Luka Dončić gave Reaves more space to operate as he was feasting against the opposing teams’ third-best perimeter defenders instead of their best and second-best when he was playing with big man Anthony Davis.
‘Great Test’ Ahead
The much-needed win pushed the Lakers record to 47-30, half-game ahead of the Denver Nuggets (47-31), who lost to the Warriors 118-104 on Friday, for the No. 3 seed in the West.
Up next for the Lakers are the top-seed Oklahoma City Thunder in a two-game set on the road on April 6 and 8 before Dončić’s emotionally charged homecoming in Dallas on April 9, the second night of another back-to-back schedule.
“It’s a great test,” Reaves said of the two-game slate against the league-leading Thunder (64-13). “They’re obviously a really good team with probably the frontrunner for the MVP right now.”
Reaves was referring to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 22 points on Friday against the Houston Rockets to extend his streak of 20-point games to 70, surpassing Michael Jordan for the fourth-longest single-season streak in NBA history.
“So [they’re] a team that plays really hard every possession,” Reaves continued. [Their] guards [play] at a high level and then on the other end, they they play with space. Like I said Shai does what he does but it’s a good test for us to match up with the number one team in the West and see where we’re at right now and continue to try to prove that we’re a good team too.”
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Austin Reaves Makes Lakers History With ‘Special’ Feat appeared first on Heavy Sports.