LOS ANGELES — When coach Darvin Ham made his most recent starting lineup change, swapping Taurean Prince for Rui Hachimura ahead of the Lakers’ Feb. 3 road win over the New York Knicks, it also led to a change in defensive responsibilities.
Prince, who started his first 47 games, was often tasked with defending the opponent’s primary starting scorer/ball-handler when Cam Reddish wasn’t in the starting lineup.
But with Prince and Reddish no longer starters, those assignments have shifted to Austin Reaves.
He’s stepped up for the Lakers amid increased on-ball defensive responsibilities, with Monday’s 116-104 home win over the Oklahoma City Thunder – when Reaves was the primary defender against Thunder guard and league MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – being the latest example.
“He just took the challenge,” LeBron James said of Reaves. “Obviously Shai is one of the best players that we have in our league, so it’s just trying not to put him at the free-throw line because that’s where he gets a lot of his points from too.
“Austin was sensational from the start to the finish, whenever he was out on the floor just trying to play the ball and making Shai and making [Jalen Williams] take tough shots and we’d just try to protect him on the backend.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, who had scored at least 30 points in his previous eight games, was held to 20 points on 5-for-13 shooting – the fourth-fewest points he’s scored in a game this season – to go with seven rebounds and four assists.
Reaves wasn’t the only reason for Gilgeous-Alexander’s uncharacteristically poor shooting night, but his individual defense was a significant factor.
The third-year guard did well with staying attached to Gilgeous-Alexander when he was operating in pick and rolls. Reaves countered Gilgeous-Alexander’s physicality by beating him to spots on drives and showing great anticipation on the moves Gilgeous-Alexander uses to create space.
Completing stopping a player of Gilgeous-Alexander’s caliber isn’t realistic. Making things more difficult is all a defender can do, and what Reaves said.
Gilgeous-Alexander shot 0 for 3 from the field and committed a pair of turnovers when defended primarily by Reaves, according to the league’s tracking data. This doesn’t take into account possessions when Reaves prevented Gilgeous-Alexander from getting a shot off that he’d usually take and forced a pass.
“He did a great job,” Davis said of Reaves’ defense against Gilgeous-Alexander. “Moving his feet knowing that Shai likes to get to his reverse-between, kind of like a little push-off, and get to his middy or get to the lane and use his pump-fakes and draw fouls and things like that.
“They’re already gonna make tough shots, but you don’t want to compound that with putting them on the line as well. He did a great job starting off on him of just making it tough for him and funneling him to do our defense and giving great contests.”
The increased defensive responsibilities aren’t anything new for Reaves.
He was one of the Lakers’ primary defenders against Jamal Murray, along with Reddish, in Saturday’s home loss to the Denver Nuggets.
Reaves has also been tasked with guarding Clippers guard James Harden, Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry in recent weeks.
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He’ll likely be tasked with being a primary defender against Sacramento guard De’Aaron Fox when the Lakers (34-29) host the Kings on Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena.
“It’s great,” Ham said. “It is a lot of responsibility to be a two-way player, you know? He embraces that challenge. He’s competing. The same with Rui [Hachimura]. Those guys know in order for them to set the tone for us in the starting lineup just can’t be an offensive tone.”
KINGS AT LAKERS
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV/radio: Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM