A career night in assists from Austin Reaves shows his ceiling is unknown

Austin Reaves isn’t done developing and his career-high 16 assists in the Lakers' win over the Kings showed some of his untapped potential.

LOS ANGELES - The matchup between the Lakers and the Kings didn’t begin in Los Angeles’ favor.

They were without LeBron James, who was ruled out with an illness before the game even began and a fiery Sacramento squad got ahead 20-19 midway through the opening quarter.

Austin Reaves responded to the Kings’ offensive onslaught in a big way. He scored 26 points and had a career-high 16 assists to secure the win for the Lakers 132-122.

L.A. has now won back-to-back games and four of their last five.

They swept the season series against the Kings and are beginning to look like a formidable team in the West.

This performance by Reaves may have been eye-popping, given his assists numbers, but he has continued to progress positively this season as an on-ball threat.

“I don’t think that tonight is an aberration for what he can do when we’re fully healthy,” JJ Redick said after the win. “I don’t view it that way. I think he is going to naturally take the second or third most shots most nights. I think he’s naturally going to have the ball. He is the primary handler. He’s naturally going to be involved in pick and rolls and dribble handoffs. When the season started, we would run an ATO [after timeout play] or two for him every game. We kind of got away from that for a while and then he got hurt. But really, for us, a lot of the stuff we do to start haves and start quarters is all movement based and he’s a primary part of any movement stuff we do.”

This was always the trajectory Reaves was heading toward, but there have been growing pains along the way.

Over the past few years, he’s had some incredible performances with the ball in his hands. His “I’m Him” game was his coming-out moment against the Memphis Grizzlies in the playoffs. Late in that game, he made basket after basket to lead the Lakers to victory and, ultimately, a series win.

Still, he’s had other games in which he struggled on the ball, as bigger, more physical guards and wings would disrupt his rhythm.

During the 2024-25 campaign, however, those moments are few and far between.

Against the Kings, De’Aaron Fox tried to agitate Reaves when he had possession, but it was an exercise in futility. Reaves was able to handle the guard’s quickness and physicality and get to his spots on the floor with both the option to be the facilitator or the aggressor still on the table.

On Saturday night, either decision proved to be the right one for Austin.

The Lakers won by double figures, but this was far from a smooth win. The contest was tight entering the second half and it took Reaves leading the charge to swing the tide in L.A.’s favor.

“We want to get teams scrambling as much as possible,” Reaves said postgame. “That’s when I think that you could have a really big quarters and games is when you get past your guy, swing it to the corner, that guy X’s out, he swings it to the wing and he might drive that and then backside, you get a three, you get a lob to AD. Really just create an advantage.”

In the third quarter, Austin had back-to-back dimes leading to an Anthony Davis pull-up and a Rui Hachimura layup. Later in the period, he found D’Angelo Russell, who pulled off an incredible reverse layup that got the crowd to erupt inside Crypto.com Arena.

Reaves added two more dimes for good measure and the Lakers were up by 17 heading into the final frame.

Such a stellar performance should not be the standard or expectation for Austin. However, it reminds everyone watching that his career trajectory is currently written with a comma and not a period.

He still has room to grow and with his work ethic and willingness to absorb information the way a sponge does water, it’s unwise to put a cap on Austin’s potential.

In his fourth season in the NBA, he is now averaging 17.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. He’s cemented himself as a bonafide starter on this Lakers roster and a player Redick can trust to start and close games.

With the team’s biggest star absent, Reaves was able to take on more on-ball duties and keep the Lakers afloat while LeBron sat out.

A little bit more rest for the King and a win against the Kings is the ultimate win-win scenario the Lakers were hoping for. Thanks to Austin’s performance, L.A. can look to end the year on a high note by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers at home on New Year’s Eve.

It’ll be their 19th win of the season if they do that. That’s a win total they didn’t reach last year until Jan. 9, when they were an even .500 on the season.

Such an improvement with largely the same personnel is a testament to the culture Redick is developing, the buy-in he’s gotten from his stars and the development of his younger players.

Austin Reaves might not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of this team’s younger talent, but make no mistake: he’s far from a finished product and his development might raise the ceiling this team has and catapult them back into contention.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.