The Los Angeles Lakers won their seventh game in a row on Wednesday night and maintained their best record in the NBA (11-2). But the W came at a cost. Austin Reaves suffered a heel injury in the third quarter and exited the game. Thankfully, X-rays on Reaves were negative, and an Achilles injury has also been ruled out.
But with further imaging planned for Reaves, and with the Lakers needing to be careful with him in general, one has to assume that AR is going to miss some upcoming games.
Luka Doncic also tweaked his ankle on Wednesday night, by the way, and while he said he's fine, JJ Redick should exercise caution. As such, the Lakers might be without one or both of their two best offensive players over the next slate of games (which is luckily against weak competition).
Without AR and/or Luka, the Lakers will need to lock in with a next-man-up mentality. Luka said as much during the postgame presser on Wednesday, in response to a question about Reaves potentially missing time. “I think we just got to have next-man-up mentality," Doncic said. "Obviously, we lose a very, very good player. Hopefully it’s not [serious] ... We got to have next-man-up mentality.”
Luka's right, and the good news is, the Lakers have a high-energy guard in Collin Sexton who can definitely step up and provide some extra production while Reaves is recovering.
Collin Sexton is the Lakers player who can ramp up his production if Austin Reaves misses games
The Lakers signed Sexton to provide offensive juice off the bench (he's also a high-voltage defender). Lakers GM Rob Pelinka also surely suspected that Sexton would operate as worthy lead-guard insurance if and when Doncic and/or Reaves had to miss an extended period due to injury. And, well, here we are (possibly).
Sexton has already shown that he's the proper guy for the job. When Reaves sat out on November 9 against the Hawks, Sexton had his best game of the season, finishing with 18 points (6-of-11 from the field, 3-of-4 from three) and six assists. He was attacking the paint with his usual gusto, creating for others, and operating as a de facto Robin to Luka.
Collin Sexton is capable of more than his normal Lakers role requires
Sexton is averaging 10.3 points and 2.6 assists per game this season in 17.8 minutes per game, but his career numbers show that he's got more to offer than that if given the opportunity. The former Alabama guard has career averages of 18.1 points and 3.6 assists in 28.7 minutes per game. If he needs to scale things up here for the Lakers, he certainly can.
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