"With ice bags wrapped around both of his knees, and his feet submerged in an ice bath, Reaves looked up from his phone and turned to teammate Jarred Vanderbilt to present a simple, but perhaps illustrative, question. "What day is it?" he asked. No one could fault Reaves for losing his bearings. It had been a dream week in which he scored a career-high 51 points in a win in Sacramento; dropped 41 points in L.A. on the Portland Trail Blazers the next night; and then one-upped himself two days later with a 28-point, 16-assist masterpiece that was capped by the buzzer-beater."
"It had been the best 96-hour stretch of the 27-year-old shooting guard's steadily ascending five-year NBA career. And it was a solo-starring act, with LeBron James and Luka Doncic sidelined with injuries. With the Lakers' lofty 8-3 record fueled largely by Reaves, his star rise puts him in squarely in the middle of two major storylines: 1: Helping the Lakers win early and often enough that it convinces James that his best shot to win a final title remains in Los Angeles. But ... 2: Playing so well that it might cost that same Lakers team nearly a quarter billion dollars to keep him."
Austin Reaves delivered a blistering 96-hour stretch, scoring a career-high 51, then 41, and a 28-point, 16-assist game finished with a buzzer-beater. He played through physical wear, using ice bags and an ice bath between games and asking a teammate, "What day is it?" Reaves' performances have propelled the Lakers to an 8-3 start while LeBron James and Luka Doncic were sidelined. His rise creates two clear outcomes: Reaves can help convince James to remain in Los Angeles for another title run, and his breakout could make retaining him extremely expensive, potentially near a quarter billion dollars.
Read at ESPN.com
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