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The Lakers’ woes continue.
Amid a disastrous season in Los Angeles, which has been littered with injuries to star players, head coach Frank Vogel found a new way to anger fans.
In the team’s last two games, a 129-118 loss to the Nuggets and a 114-111 loss to the Pelicans, Vogel inexplicably benched Austin Reaves, a fan favorite who has started several games throughout the season. The undrafted rookie has endeared himself to the Lakers fan base for his energy and defense throughout the tough season, and has averaged 22.5 minutes per game on the year.
When asked about the benching, Vogel said it was due to a “little bit of everything.”
“Austin’s played really well for us this year,” Vogel said with the team currently on a six-game losing streak. “When you’re losing as much as we’re losing, you got to look at different things. He has struggled shooting the ball of late and he has shown, some nights, a little bit of rookie fatigue, if you want to call it that.
“I don’t have a lack of confidence in him but we looked at Avery (Bradley) as a change-up. He played really well the other night and he’s getting those minutes now.”
It’s true that Reaves has struggled shooting the ball lately – in the four games before his benching, he was 3-for-15 from the field and 0-for-7 from three. But he only averages about five shots per game, and there is not much on the bench behind him. Bradley shot 8-of-10 in the two games but was a negative-12 over that span. Carmelo Anthony got increased minutes on Sunday, and shot 1-of-7 from three.
Fans were upset with Vogel’s decision to go away from Reaves entirely, an instance that was not the first time the coach has frustrated Lakers faithful.
At 31-47, the Lakers currently sit in the 11th seed in the Western Conference – two games out of the play-in tournament. With just four games left in the regular season, it seems likely Los Angeles will miss the playoffs for the second time since LeBron James joined the team four years ago.
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