One of the main storylines for the Los Angeles Lakers this season, other than the arrival of Luka Doncic, has been the rise of Austin Reaves. He was already a good player during the previous two seasons, but this season, he has taken things to an even higher level.
He’s averaging 20.2 points a game this season, compared to 15.9 points a game last season. While he reached the 30-point mark just once during the 2023-24 campaign, he has gotten there 10 times so far this season, which included a career-best 45-point effort versus the Indiana Pacers on Feb. 8.
Some people feel that Reaves should get some consideration for the Most Improved Player award. In fact, LeBron James feels he should win the award.
While Reaves didn’t make the All-Star team this year, he is playing at that type of level on a consistent basis. Doncic’s arrival has made life easier for him — in fact, in his last 14 games, he averaged 26.1 points a game on 52.5% field-goal shooting and 42.1% from 3-point range.
The Lakers have a legitimate “Big 3” now, and after their big win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, that trio could end up doing lots of damage over the next two months or so.
The top couple of seeds in each conference are set — Oklahoma City and Houston in the West, Cleveland and Boston in the East — and after that things open up quickly. Here’s everything you need to know about the NBA Playoffs heading into the final week of the season.
Let’s break it down by conference, taking a closer look at each race (the listed games back in each race are from the leader of that grouping, not the top-seeded team).
Oklahoma City has been clear and away the best team in the West during the regular season and has long ago locked up the No. 1 seed. Houston is 13.5 games back of OKC, and had a little slump that made things interesting recently, but the Rockets’ magic number to lock up the No. 2 seed is one (one Rockets win or Lakers loss this week). One thing to watch: Other teams don’t fear the Rockets in the playoffs the way they fear the Thunder (or even the Warriors/Lakers/Nuggets), so don’t be surprised if teams try to jockey into the 3 or 6 seeds to get on Houston’s side of the bracket.
The Lakers are in control of the No. 3 seed: Two wins in their final four games guarantees them the No. 3 seed, and just one win guarantees a top-six finish. After that, the other five teams all have 32 losses — it is one big tie that could go in any direction. A couple of key games to watch this week in this group:
• Lakers at Thunder (Tuesday). The Lakers won the first game of this two-game set on Sunday.
• Rockets at Clippers (Wednesday). The Clippers’ elite defense against the young legs of the Rockets will be entertaining.
• Timberwolves at Grizzlies (Thursday). Ja Morant vs. Anthony Edwards will be a show.
• Rockets at Lakers (Friday). Houston will have things locked up as the two seed, but is not going to take it easy against the Lakers.
Phoenix enters the week mathematically alive, if it can win its final four games this week it has a chance to catch Dallas (two losses, however, and the Suns are eliminated). In reality, the Suns let go of the rope and have games against the Warriors and Thunder this week. The Suns are toast.
Sacramento has one game lead in the loss column but has a slightly tougher schedule this week with the Nuggets, Clippers and Pistons coming up. The race to host the first round of the Play-In Tournament could come down to the final days.
