LUKA COMES BACK TO DROP 40 WITH EASE 💯 LAKERS WIN THEIR FIRST NBA CUP GROUP GAME 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/sFmkBHgYCD— ²³𝙻𝚎𝙱𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚜🏀☄️🌎💞 (@BronGotGame) November 1, 2025

Lakers 117 Grizz 112Luka Doncic 44 pts 12 rebs 6 assts Austin Reaves 21 pts 4 rebs 4 asstsJake LaRavia 13 pts 5 rebs 2 stlsMarcus Smart 12 pts 3 rebs 4 assts 2 stls locked up Ja Morant: 8 pts on 3-14 FGs.Lakers defense ramped up holding Mem to 43 pts in the 2nd half. pic.twitter.com/ERi53eBNai— Lakers Nation PH (@LakersNation_PH) November 1, 2025

BELT TO AHHHHH IN THAT SECOND HALF 😭The Lakers outscored the Grizzlies 62-43 after half 🔥 https://t.co/9JcoKiQNeS pic.twitter.com/x97IAB0kl6— Lakers All Day Everyday (@LADEig) November 1, 2025

#LAKERSWIN Final: Lakers 117 – Grizzlies 112 pic.twitter.com/WAYsrIFcJA— LakersVerse (@LakersVerse77) November 1, 2025

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

After a nail-biting win on Austin Reaves’ game-winner, the Lakers head to Memphis for their first game of the third edition of the Emirates NBA Cup. The Lakers, of course, lifted the inaugural trophy back in 2024, before the Milwaukee Bucks claimed it last season. This year, they’ll compete in West Group B, alongside the Grizzlies, Mavericks, Clippers, and Pelicans.

source: https://www.nba.com/nba-cup/2025/standings

Even more than the Cup excitement, Lakers fans were likely encouraged by Luka Dončić and Marcus Smart being upgraded to questionable on the latest injury report. Even if Dončić doesn’t return tonight, JJ Redick hinted the expectation is for him to be back in the lineup within the next couple of games. Both teams enter at 3–2 and will be missing several players. In their first five games, the Grizzlies beat the struggling Pelicans, a depleted Pacers team, and the Suns, but lost convincingly to the Warriors and Heat.

Given the added NBA Cup stakes, I’ve chosen this matchup as the Game of the Week. Both the preview and post-game observations will be free for everyone to read. For other games, full insights are available to paid subscribers. If you enjoy the coverage, please consider subscribing and supporting the work.

digginbasketball is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Lakers (3-2) @ Grizzlies (3-2) game facts
Rest: LAL on 1 day of rest; MEM on 1 day of rest

LAL vs MEM 2024-25 record: 3-1

LAL injuries: LeBron James (OUT), Gabe Vincent (OUT), Adou Thiero (OUT), Maxi Kleber (OUT), Luka Dončić (questionable), Marcus Smart (questionable)

MEM injuries: Brandon Clarke (OUT), Zach Edey (OUT), Ty Jerome (OUT), Scotty Pippen Jr. (OUT)

LAL projected starting five: Austin Reaves (G), Jake LaRavia (F), Rui Hachimura (F), Jarred Vanderbilt (F), Deandre Ayton (C)

LAL key reserves: Dalton Knecht, Jaxon Hayes, Nick Smith Jr., Bronny James

MEM projected starting five: Ja Morant (G), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (G), Jaylen Wells (F), Jaren Jackson Jr. (F), Jock Landale (C)

MEM key reserves: Cedric Coward, Santi Aldama, John Konchar, Javon Small, Cam Spencer

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Across three games in a wild week, Austin Reaves has ascended to superstardom for the Lakers.

Austin Reaves’ career has been defined by him stepping up to the challenge.

His path from undrafted rookie to Lakers superstar has been a steady upward climb, something not always common in the NBA. Each season, he’s been asked to take on a bigger role and each season, he’s answered the bell.

However, the latest leap he’s made might be his most impressive. After establishing himself as, at the very least, an elite role player last season, Reaves has immediately elevated himself to superstar status in the opening weeks of this season.

With both Luka Dončić and LeBron James sidelined by injuries, Austin has once again been asked to do more and, once again, has stepped up. Over the first two weeks of the season, Reaves has pieced together incredible performances that have featured a career-high in points, a game-winning buzzer beater and league-wide recognition of the star he has become.

How did it all happen so fast? Let’s look at the rapid ascension Reaves has gone on over the last week, starting at the beginning.

While Reaves’ week of playing without his superstar teammates has been the larger focus, by no means did he start the season poorly. He was simply overshadowed by Luka’s own MVP-caliber start.

After scoring 43 points on opening night, Luka poured in 49 points in a win over the Wolves. But it was the points he didn’t score that Reaves let him know about.

Luka was left in the game late in the fourth to try to get 50 points and had his chance with a pair of two free throws. However, he split the two freebies and was soon subbed out, leaving him one point shy and opening up the door for his teammates to let him know about it.

Luka wouldn’t get a chance at redemption as, hours before Sunday’s game against the Kings, he was ruled out for at least a week with both a sprained finger, suffered against the Wolves, and a lower leg contusion. With LeBron already out to start the season due to sciatica, Reaves was the only one left standing.

Given the reins to the offense against the Kings, Reaves flourished, as he so often has in his career. The Lakers leaned on him heavily and he responded in kind, pouring in a career high 51 points with 30 of those coming in the second half.

Whether it was timely 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, impressive finishes at the rim or the countless trips to the free throw line — which had the Kings crashing out after the game — Reaves had answers for everything Sacramento threw his way. And not to be lost in the shuffle is how close he came to a historic triple-double as he finished with 11 rebounds and nine assists.

“First quarter, wouldn’t say I started off great…you just stick with it,” Reaves said postgame. “Especially on a night you don’t have Luka, you don’t have LeBron, you don’t have Jaxson, you know you have to go out there and be big for the team. I wasn’t in my head thinking, ‘You have to score 50.’ It was, ‘Do whatever you can do to help the team win.’“

In a bit of poetry, Reaves went to the line with 23 seconds remaining and two chances to eclipse 50 points. Unlike Luka, Reaves knocked both down.

“I ain’t gonna lie,” Reaves said. “I went to the free throw line like, ‘S—, I better not miss.’”

Always one to have the right perspective and never let the spotlight shine too long on him, Reaves was quick to point out the role those around him on the team had in his breakout game.

“I feel like I’m just playing the game I love,” Reaves said. “Try to play the right way, do the right things on and off the court and put the work in. You can’t take shortcuts. On top of that, my teammates and my coaching staff let me be myself. That’s a big reason for why I’m able to go play the way I play.”

“You’re no longer the undrafted guy who’s a young player who’s unproven. You’re one of the guys now.”
There was little time for celebration as, 24 hours later, the team returned to Los Angeles for the second night of a back-to-back against the Blazers.

Not only were the Lakers and Reaves tasked with going up against a team willing and able to pressure perimeter players with All-Defense talent in Toumani Camara and Jrue Holiday, but LA was even more shorthanded with both Marcus Smart and Gabe Vincent sitting out the contest after playing on Sunday. In effect, Reaves was the only reliable ballhandler the team had entering the game.

Again, it didn’t matter.

While he couldn’t quite muster up enough heroics to carry the severely undermanned Lakers across the finish line again, it was through no fault of his own that the purple and gold came up empty. Reaves finished with 41 points, five assists and four rebounds.

Heading into the season, only Anthony Davis had scored at least 92 points in a two-game span for the Lakers since 2009. In a span of four games to open the season, Reaves and Luka joined him.

Even more, Reaves’ 143 points through the first four games of the season tied him for the third most points in franchise history across the opening four contests of a campaign.

No longer was Reaves seen as the plucky underdog with a fun story. Now, he was one of the team’s leaders both in the locker room and on the court.

“I think the biggest thing was him taking a step forward as a leader and recognizing that it’s as much his team as it is LeBron’s team or Luka’s team and acknowledging that he does have innate natural leadership skills and being able to tap into those more consistently,” Redick said of his conversations over the summer with Reaves. ”I told him he’s out of excuses. ‘You’re no longer the undrafted guy who’s a young player who’s unproven. You’re one of the guys now.’“

“That guy’s going to show up in the big moments.”
Reaves didn’t need to do any more proving that he had arrived this season, but that didn’t stop him from offering up one of the highlights of his career two nights later.

The Lakers faced a familiar foe in the Timberwolves, the team that bounced them out of the playoffs last season. They, too, were shorthanded with Anthony Edwards sidelined due to a hamstring strain.

However, it was also a team that Reaves struggled mightily against in that postseason. After the series, it was reported that he was dealing with a toe injury, but the criticisms came all the same.

But Reaves was hard on himself, too. He lamented the missed game-tying shot he had in Game 4, an off-balance corner 3-pointer that may have helped save the Lakers and their head coach from embarrassment.

Given a chance to return to the building again, Reaves seized the opportunity. While his shot wasn’t falling at the level it had in previous games that week, he made up for it in other ways. Reaves turned to facilitating and handed out 16 assists, tying his career high.

On the back of his playmaking, the Lakers built a 20-point second-half lead. However, LA watched it all slip away in the fourth quarter as the Wolves eventually took the lead with 10 seconds remaining.

But Reaves would have the last laugh.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

The NBA, if you haven’t noticed, has become huge.

That was one of my standout takeaways from phone calls with team personnel throughout the preseason, in addition to our — proven correct! — hypothesis that front offices and owners were starting to have sticker shock about rising player salaries to a degree that would drive down the overall value of various rookie scale contract extensions. I heard over and over, on top of the mounting dread regarding contracts that consume an ever-higher percentage of a team’s salary cap, that countless teams were proud of how large their rosters are.

Hawks folks were thrilled about how big their squad now stands with 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porziņģis rounding out a frontcourt alongside massive forwards Jalen Johnson and Zaccharie Risacher. The Sixers started Adem Bona next to Joel Embiid in exhibition play. Denver has played Jonas Valančiūnas next to Nikola Jokić. The Mavericks stunned Lakers head coach JJ Redick when they debuted their supersized lineup that, despite a 2-3 start, still features the 6-foot-9 No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg at point guard.

“I think it’s a trend that I think will stick for a while,” Redick told reporters postgame.

Why, though? Especially when the league was not very long ago seemingly so ready to pronounce that NBA big men were going extinct?

Timberwolves fan: "Who is number 12?"Anthony Edwards: "That's what I'm saying! I don't know!"Jake LaRavia's stat line in the Lakers' win last night: 27 points 8 rebounds 10-of-11 FG 5-of-6 3PTpic.twitter.com/mBT2fOrPT4— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 30, 2025

JAKE LARAVIA (NUMBER 12)!27 Points10 of 11 Shooting8 Rebounds5 Threespic.twitter.com/rg6OQf9wM4 https://t.co/psXZuih0BX— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 30, 2025

Jake LaRavia vs Wolves:27 PTS8 REB10-11 FG5-6 3PThe first Laker with 25+ points on 90+ FG% since Pau Gasol. pic.twitter.com/urpVmtIAKY— StatMuse (@statmuse) October 30, 2025

JJ Redick: "It's very early in his Laker career, but clearly his best game as a Laker. I'm really happy for him and I showed them something the other day, I think it was the Amazon video about reference points. And for Jake as a Laker, this game now is a reference point."Austin… https://t.co/iyOJkSAXs3— Daniel Starkand (@DStarkand) October 30, 2025

Reaves and Ayton the last 3 games pic.twitter.com/drwuUzKUSn— Lane ‍ (@LakerrsLane) October 30, 2025

If Reaves to Ayton pick and roll looks this good, mane wait for Bron and Luka pic.twitter.com/F24cQ3OJuB— Teek (@XOLakeShow) October 30, 2025

1. Thats a Buzzer beater of a plyaer with stones.2. One of my favorites @Lakers teams was the pre Shaq 90's no real star but buch of good guys that plays fun and hard, strong vibes from this bunch.3. The Reaves – Ayton duo game gets better every game #LakeShow #LakersWinAR to… pic.twitter.com/kaxgf4vSAZ— Stav Nemes (@stavichka) October 30, 2025