{"id":107482,"date":"2025-12-24T08:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T08:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/107482\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T08:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T08:02:09","slug":"austin-reaves-return-cant-save-lakers-from-blowout-loss-to-suns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/107482\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Reaves’ return can’t save Lakers from blowout loss to Suns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Austin Reaves<\/a> returned from a left calf strain that sidelined him for three games, but the Lakers<\/a>\u2019 second-leading scorer did nothing to fix the team\u2019s most glaring weakness.<\/p>\n

The Lakers\u2019 defense collapsed in a 132-108 loss<\/a> to the Suns on Tuesday at Mortgage Matchup Center, giving up a season-high field goal percentage (59%) and tying their mark for most points allowed this season. Led by a combined 17-for-29 shooting from star guard Devin Booker (21 points) and Dillon Brooks (25 points), the Suns easily eclipsed the 56.5% they shot against the Lakers on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theme with our team again is like these young teams that move, we just can\u2019t move,\u201d said coach JJ Redick, whose team is 1-2 against the Suns (16-13). \u201cSo it\u2019s like we\u2019re stuck in mud.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers (19-9) remain in the top half of the competitive Western Conference, but with blowout losses to Atlanta, Oklahoma City and San Antonio, L.A. is clinging to a plus-1.1 in point differential. They lost consecutive games for the first time Tuesday and limped into a marquee Christmas Day matchup against the Houston Rockets with a multitude of injuries.<\/p>\n

All things Lakers, all the time. <\/p>\n

Playing without Luka Doncic<\/a>, who is day to day with a left leg contusion he sustained Saturday against the Clippers<\/a>, LeBron James<\/a> led the Lakers with 23 points on seven-for-14 shooting. Deandre Ayton had a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double while Reaves came off the bench for the first time in two seasons and scored 17 points with two assists and three turnovers.<\/p>\n

Redick said Reaves was not on an official minutes restriction after his weeklong absence, but that the team would monitor his workload \u201cin real time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to start, at the rotation that Bron has, for me to stay around that 20-25 minute mark,\u201d said Reaves, who played 21 minutes and 46 seconds. \u201cSo [coming off the bench] got brought up in my shooting time. I said I was open to whatever. Definitely felt weird coming off the bench, but it\u2019s basketball at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calf injuries, even the most minor, have been major concerns for the NBA since three stars suffered Achilles tendon tears during last season\u2019s playoffs. Reaves, who carried the team during the early part of a season that has featured injury absences from James and Doncic, led the team in minutes per game. His 775 minutes entering Tuesday were second-most on the team behind Rui Hachimura. The Japanese forward missed his second consecutive game with right groin soreness.<\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

Lakers star Lebron James puts up a shot against the Suns on Tuesday night. James finished with 23 points.<\/p>\n

(Rick Scuteri \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

When asked whether Reaves needed a physical reset after carrying such a large load, Redick admitted a break may have been necessary.<\/p>\n

Reaves looked out of sorts when he entered with 5:23 remaining in the first quarter. He fumbled the handoff on his first touch coming off a screen. When he tried to thread bounce passes through tiny windows, the ball was kicked away or deflected. He got attacked on defense and gave up consecutive driving layups to Suns guard Jamaree Bouyea.<\/p>\n

Bouyea had 14 points off the bench, including a layup over Marcus Smart, who failed to draw a charge call, in the third quarter. While Smart laid in the key appealing to officials, Bouyea didn\u2019t hesitate to leap over the Lakers\u2019 guard and score. The Lakers fell behind by as many as 29 in the third quarter, and Redick quietly waved the white flag with 5:22 remaining in the third when he put reserve forward Maxi Kleber and rookie Adou Thiero onto the floor.<\/p>\n

The Phoenix crowd started to file out in bunches with seven minutes remaining when the lead reached 30.<\/p>\n

Even courtside seats were empty in the final minutes. Brooks took advantage, sitting in a courtside seat on the baseline as Thiero stepped to the free throw line with 1:16 remaining. Brooks waved his arms as a distraction. Thiero split his two shots. <\/p>\n

Etc.<\/p>\n

Center Jaxson Hayes left the game with left ankle soreness in the second quarter and didn\u2019t return.. Redick said it was an aggravation of a previous injury suffered last week.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Austin Reaves returned from a left calf strain that sidelined him for three games, but the Lakers\u2019 second-leading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[19538,1732,19356,57906,423,349,48,52,51,1415,13505,47,50,49,7551,5463,17960,278,6711,427,68],"class_list":["post-107482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-austin-reaves","tag-bench","tag-blowout-loss","tag-bouyea","tag-game","tag-injury","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-luka-doncic","tag-minute","tag-most-point","tag-season","tag-suns","tag-team","tag-tuesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}