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Austin Reaves gets brutally honest about performance vs. Mavericks

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Austin Reaves played poorly on both ends of the floor in this one, and he admitted as such postgame according to Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times.

“I was just really, really bad on both sides of the ball tonight,” Reaves said after the game, per Woike.

Reaves had one of his worst games of the season in all facts of the game in this one. Offensively, the young guard scored just 15 points on 5-for-14 shooting. Defensively, the Mavericks singled out Reaves and attacked him in isolation over and over in this one, particularly in the second half. The Lakers were outscored by 25 points when Reaves was on the floor for the full game.

Lakers ‘not satisfied’ with roster, will continue evaluating trade market

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After trading for Dorian Finney-Smith, the reports remain consistent that the Lakers will continue evaluating the trade market for more deals.

The Lakers are already reaping the benefits of making an early-season trade to bring in Dorian Finney-Smith. While it’s still early, it’s clear how DFS will help the Lakers on both sides of the ball and impact winning overall.

However, even as they have already seen the rewards, the Lakers don’t sound like a team that’ll be complacent moving forward.

As previously reported, the Lakers intend to evaluate the roster in the coming weeks before making a move. However, what’s clear is that the team still intends to make a move, or at least are saying as much.

During a recent live stream on his YouTube, Jovan Buha of The Athletic further emphasized that the Lakers aren’t satisfied with the roster and will scan the trade market for more upgrades.

“My understanding, as I reported, is that the Lakers are still going to be evaluating the trade market and they are not satisfied with the roster. They want to continue to improve it and explore those opportunities. So, I think a trade is realistic.

Now, does that involve a first [round pick] or not, I think that’s less clear. Again, something I’ve reported on is, when we talk about what other people around the league are saying or thinking with the Lakers, there’s been some skepticism as to them actually giving up a first or certainly giving up both firsts.”

There can be debates about what type of trade the team should make and whether it should be first or second round pick, but the fact they’re still planning on making a deal is encouraging.

While the team has looked better as the season has gone on and perhaps the front office could be convinced that nothing needs to be done, it appears they are not settling for the improvements they’ve made so far.

Part of this could be simply how glaring the needs are. The team needs a backup big man, as Sunday’s loss to the Rockets showed, and every team needs more 3-and-D wings.

Redick confused as everyone else at Lakers defense vs. Mavs

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The Lakers had a lackluster defensive effort against the Mavericks that left JJ Redick more confused than upset or angry.

Ever the team eager to take two steps forward and one step back, the Lakers bungled a great opportunity on Tuesday. Matched up against a Mavs team down both Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, the Lakers laid an egg and fell in a game that ultimately wasn’t even close.

While there was plenty of blame to go around, the Lakers’ defensive effort was…lackluster at best.

Sloppy closeouts, missed rotations and constant blow-bys all led to the Mavericks shooting 52.3% from the field while connecting on 18 3-pointers. All in all, not great!

Head coach JJ Redick has expressed many emotions in his postgame pressers this season: frustration, exasperation, disappointment. On Tuesday, though, it was a new one.

Confusion.

“Our basic, shell, day one [defense] just wasn’t good,” Redick said. “Low man wasn’t there. If he was there, weakside rotation wasn’t there. We just couldn’t get stops on that.”

“I’m not sure what our rotations were. I’ve never seen us try to execute what we were doing. I haven’t watched the film yet. Just watching it live and talking to the assistants who did watch it on film, we’re not sure what was going on with the shift positioning and the rotations. Never seen it before.”

Breakdowns like the Lakers had defensively are a combination of many things going wrong. In the Lakers’ case, it was even the basic stuff they weren’t doing.

The result was a host of open 3-pointers off drives and kicks. That was never more apparent in the second half than when the Mavs hit four-straight 3-pointers to cap off a huge run that the Lakers never recovered from.

Asked what the team could have done in a situation like that, Redick broke down the different options…and discussed how the Lakers did neither.

“There’s two things that you can do,” Redick said. “One is you stay with your own man…or you can just zone up and you take cutters. We did neither. Again, I’ve never seen that coverage before.”

Ideally, you don’t want your head coach to repeatedly reiterate postgame that he’s never seen his team do something before, particularly when it’s something as catastrophic as what the Lakers did.

If you’re a Lakers fan looking for a glimmer of hope, the Lakers have generally responded well after bad defeats. Unfortunately, it’s also something that they have far too much of a sample size of this season.