The Silver Lining for the Lakers and Austin Reaves After Game 5

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers · Apr 30, 2026 · 19m

Game 5 was not a good one for the Lakers, especially offensively.

And while Austin Reaves did score 22 points, most of it came from the free throw line. His ineffectiveness from the field (4-16 shooting) was a drag on the performance of the offense as a while. It's easy to understand why - parachuting into a series after a long layoff isn't easy - but the circumstances don't necessarily matter. The Lakers need Reaves to be better going forward.

The good news is while the output for A.R. and the team wasn't terribly impressive, there were very positive signs about what Reaves can do for the…