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By Jayesh Pagar
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Luka Doncic has been playing great for the Los Angeles Lakers, averaging 45 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists in his last four games.
But he was ruled out of Sunday’s game in Detroit with lower-back tightness, so Austin Reaves had to lead the team.
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Reaves scored a season-high 43 points in a 121-116 win. But he also sat late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, while the Pistons were quickly covering a 26-point lead.
Head coach JJ Redick was asked about it after the game, and ESPN’s Dave McMenamin shared the clip on X.
“If you overreact to that, then you’re going to overreact to it consistently, and then you’re going to just be all over the place with your playing times and rotations. And frankly, that’s not good for players,” Redick said.
“You got to allow the players to play through it. And the same thing with the star players is you got to allow them to get their rest,” he added.
“If you start just overreacting in-game and saying, ‘I got to get this guy back in’ … it’s just chaos. And we are trying to create consistency for our players,” Redick explained.
Detroit got back in the game thanks to its bench. Daniss Jenkins scored a career-high 31 points, and Kevin Huerter added 24. The Pistons even had a chance to tie it at 90 with 9:14 left, but Cade Cunningham missed a free throw.
Sitting Reaves did not cost the Lakers in the end. He came back in and made the big plays late. With the shot clock running out, he hit an off-balance three with 46 seconds left, then made his free throws to finish it.
The Lakers have now won five straight games and are 9-2. Next, they visit the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night.
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