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Austin Reaves made it clear that the Lakers are ready to go to battle vs. the Thunder

How bad was Los Angeles guard Austin Reaves in the Game 1 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday? Simply put, Reaves produced the worst shooting night by any Lakers player in a postseason in four decades.

Per ESPN Insights: “Austin Reaves’ 18.8 FG% in Game 1 was the lowest by any Laker in a playoff game over the last 35 years (min. 15 FGA).”

Besides shooting 3-for-16 from the floor, Reaves coughed up a team-high four turnovers in his team’s 108-90 loss to the reigning NBA champions.

Austin Reaves Struggles for Lakers

In fairness to Reaves, the game on Tuesday marked just his third game back in the Lakers lineup since he sustained an oblique injury on April 2. In those three games, however, Reaves has been historically bad with his shooting efficiency.

Reaves has shot 14-for-46 from the field (30%) and 2-for-17 from three (12%) in the last three playoff games, including Games 5 and 6 against the Houston Rockets.

According to ESPN Research, Reaves shot 0-for-10 when contested by an OKC defender in Game 1, becoming the first player to shoot 0-for-10 on contested shots since Golden State Warriors‘ Draymond Green in 2023.

Reaves was asked if he had a plan to get out of his shooting funk before Game 2.

“I mean obviously the easy thing [to say] is to make more shots,” Reaves said, via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

“I got to my spots multiple times and just missed a couple of easy shots. But for the most part, you got to limit the turnovers. They pressure the ball really well, just got to give us an opportunity to get a shot on goal every possession.”

Lakers Rally Behind Austin Reaves

Entering the game, the Thunder made it a focus to keep Reaves — one of the best in the league at drawing fouls — out of the free-throw line. Further to that point, AR attempted a 14 free throws in just 64 minutes of playing time against the Rockets. On Tuesday, he got to the line only twice.

“I think we did a good job of just executing the plan on him,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of not allowing Reaves to get to the line.

“With him, you just can’t give him a lot of cracks. If you give him easy stuff, he’s able to really burn you. I thought we did a nice job tonight of keeping him at bay, not fouling him too much and being in a good position on him and just making him earn everything.”

Despite Reaves’ struggles, veteran forward LeBron James and head coach JJ Redick expressed confidence that Reaves would regain his shooting touch imminently.

“He was out a month,” James of Reaves’ struggles.

“We know he’s going to make shots and make plays, but that’s tough. … Obviously we’re trying to fast-track him, getting back on the floor and doing the things that he was doing before the injury. But he was out a month, so rightfully so, if he has some games where he’s missing shots or whatever the case may be.”