Bench Austin Reaves and 2 other changes Lakers must make vs Warriors
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers were unable to take a two-game lead over the Golden State Warriors, dropping Game 2 on the road on Thursday night. While losing is never fun, the Lakers still did their job of taking one of the first two games on the road to gain home-court advantage for the rest of the series.
While LA is in a good position, the team cannot be complacent and is going to have to make changes as this series progresses. If not, the defending champions are going to do what they do best and steal this series from the purple and gold.
3 changes Lakers must make vs Warriors after Game 2:
1. Bench Austin Reaves
Austin Reaves has become a massive fan favorite and he still has a lot of value to this franchise. That being said, the Lakers have to do what is best for the team and starting Reaves on the bench and giving him less playing time is probably the best way to go.
This is a bad matchup for Reaves and he has struggled so far in this series. Most of his struggles have come on the defensive end as Reaves has struggled to keep up with the Warriors’ hectic off-ball movement and has not done a good job in maneuvering through the team’s staggering amount of screens.
Playing defense against the Warriors is not easy for anyone but that doesn’t mean Ham should just leave Reaves out there to get burnt on the defensive end. Instead, he has more value in this series coming off the bench as a heat-check scorer that could steal the end of quarters to swing a game.
In turn, the Lakers should probably be starting Dennis Schroder solely for defensive purposes as his athleticism and quickness matches up better as an off-ball defender.