Los Angeles Lakers News: Watch Austin Reaves' Insane Double OT Triple Double vs Bucks

Young Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Austin Reaves has had a fun if somewhat understated third pro season this year. After emerging as a favorite contender for Most Improved Player honors preseason (finished 10th last year), Reaves saw himself shuffled in and out of Darvin Ham's starting lineups for much of the year, and though he enjoyed more consistent minutes than he did during a breakout stint on the 2022-23 Lakers.

Across 72 contests this year (47 starts), the 6'5" swingman is averaging 16.1 points on .491/.377/.860 shooting splits, 5.6 dimes, 4.3 boards, and 0.8 steals a night. But he enjoyed probably his best game of the season last night, in helping guide an LA team without offensive leader LeBron James to a 128-124 double-overtime victory over the mighty Milwaukee Bucks.

Playing 47:35 on Monday night in Milwaukee, Reaves scored 29 points on 10-of-20 shooting from the field (4-of-11 from long range) and 5-of-6 shooting from the charity stripe, 14 rebounds, 10 assists, and two blocks. He wasn't the only Laker who stepped up in the absence of James, but we'll get to that in a bit.

For now, check out these exciting highlights of a game well played:

The game wasn't even that close for much of the night. By the 10:37 mark of the fourth quarter, Los Angeles was trailing Milwaukee 90-74 at the Fiserv Forum. Reaves spoke postgame about the Lakers' decision to fight rather than cave and lose, even with the second contest of a back-to-back set of games looming tonight, per Steve Megargee of The Associated Press.

"It was one of those moments that you could either flip the page to tomorrow, get ready for that game or you could go out and compete 110% and give yourself an opportunity or at least try to give yourself an opportunity to get back in the game," Reaves said.

Both Bucks All-Stars seemed shell-shocked by the loss after it happened. Power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and point guard Damian Lillard did not seem pleased as the team fell to a 46-26 record on the year. The Bucks remain the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, still two contests clear of the third-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.

"Sometimes the ball just bounces different, and if you don't stay disciplined and do the things that go into how we built that lead, those leads can go away quick in this league with the shooting that's in the league, like they did tonight," Lillard said. "That's what happened."

"We've got to watch this game, learn from this game," Antetokounmpo said. "Watch why we weren't able to get a stop. Watch why the ball wasn't moving down the stretch. Watch why we lost the game. Watch why there was a lot of 50-50 balls and we weren't able to get them."

All-Star Los Angeles center Anthony Davis and starting point guard D'Angelo Russell also enjoyed huge nights for the club. Davis submitted a 34-point, 23-rebound double-double (along with four blocks, two steals, and two assists) in a whopping 51:52 of action while grappling with a knee injury. Russell finished with 29 points, on an inefficient 7-of-22 shooting from the field, plus 12 assists, seven rebounds, two steals, and a block in 50:23.

LA won't get much chance for a breather. The team faces the Memphis Grizzlies tonight.