Lakers' Austin Reaves: Overcomes slow start in loss

Reaves finished Friday's 126-105 loss to the Celtics with 36 points (9-18 FG, 3-8 3Pt, 15-17 FT), eight assists and three rebounds over 33 minutes.

Reaves was the No. 1 option for the Lakers on Friday due to the absences of LeBron James (sciatica/foot) and Luka Doncic (personal). Reaves struggled out of the gate with an 0-for-5 first quarter, no doubt feeling the fatigue from Thursday's win over the Raptors, when he dropped 44 points in 41 minutes. Reaves bounced back and poured in 24 second-half points while doing most of his damage from the charity stripe, but the Lakers' halftime deficit was too big to overcome. The rising star has scored at least 33 points in five of his last six games, and over that span he has averaged 33.0 points on 61.9 percent shooting, 5.8 assists, 5.7 rebounds, 3.8 threes and 0.7 steals over 37.2 minutes per game.