Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
On Thursday, Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns defeated Austin Reaves and the Los Angeles Lakers in a preseason game by a final score of 123-100.
Durant scored 21 points in the win and taunted Reaves at the end of the first half after scoring a fadeaway jumper against him.
After the game, Reaves provided a hilarious reaction to Durant telling a Lakers assistant coach, Jordan Ott, to not let Reaves guard the Suns star when the two teams face off against each other in the regular season on Oct. 26.
Reaves played well in Thursday’s preseason loss against the Suns. He stuffed the stat sheet, as he finished with 14 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks in 24 minutes of playing time. The guard also converted four of his eight field-goal attempts, including three of his four 3-point attempts.
Thursday wasn’t Reaves’ only impressive performance for the Lakers during preseason. He dropped 18 points against the Brooklyn Nets back on Oct. 9 and 16 points against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 13. Reaves also shot better than 50 percent from the field in both of those games.
The 6-foot-5 guard signed with the Lakers as a free agent after going undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft. He played four seasons of college basketball, two seasons at Wichita State University and two seasons at the University of Oklahoma. Reaves averaged 18.3 points per game for the Sooners during his senior season, the 2020-21 season.
The 25-year-old guard is entering his third season in the NBA and with the Lakers. He averaged 13.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game while shooting an efficient 52.9 percent from the field and 39.8 from beyond the arc in 64 appearances with the storied franchise during the 2022-23 regular season.
As Reaves alluded to after Thursday’s loss, Durant is flat-out unguardable on the offensive end of the floor. He owns a unique combination of height, quickness and skill that has allowed him to cement himself as one of the best scorers in the history of the league.
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