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LA Lakers guard Austin Reaves cannot wait to return home after their Game 2 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. The Lakers had a lackluster performance on Wednesday, with the Grizzlies getting a 103-93 win to even the series heading into Game 3.
In a postgame news conference, Reaves discussed how the Grizzlies have always been great without Ja Morant this season. He thought that the Lakers were unable to match Memphis' energy and it showed late in the game. Nevertheless, the Oklahoma product is excited play in front of the Crypto.com crowd again.
"They've proven in the last two years that they play really good basketball with or without (Morant)," Reaves said. "We knew it was gonna be a challenge and they were desperate. They played harder than us."
He added:
"We come down here and we got Game 1, so it put us in a good position. Wish we would have gotten tonight, but that's the nature of the game. You win some and you lose some. It'll be nice to get back to LA and play in the front of our crowd and that atmosphere."
Austin Reaves finished the game with just 12 points on 5-for-12 shooting from the field. Reaves also had five rebounds and four assists, but didn't have the same performance from Game 1.
LeBron James led the LA Lakers in scoring with 28 points, but it was not enough. Rui Hachimura had another big game with 20 points off the bench, but Anthony Davis and D'Angelo Russell struggled shooting the ball.
Davis had 13 points, eight rebounds, three assists and five blocks, but shot just 4-for-14 from the field. Russell was just plain awful offensively, finishing with five points on 2-for-11 shooting.
Austin Reaves voted one of the most overrated players in the NBA
Austin Reaves burst from the scene as an undrafted rookie with the LA Lakers last season. Reaves' role expanded this season and showed that he belongs in the NBA. However, he was recently voted among the most overrated players in the league.
Reaves averaged 13.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists this season, while shooting 52.9% from the field and 39.8% from beyond the arc. Despite being called overrated by some of his peers, Reaves is expected to get paid in the offseason.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported two weeks ago that Reaves could fetch a four-year, $50 million contract in free agency. Charania even went as far as saying that Reaves might even get an offer that is worth $60-70 million, which the Lakers cannot match.
