4 HRS AGO - Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images Austin Reaves was great at drawing free throws long before this recent stretch for the Lakers. Lakers guard Austin Reaves is having the best stretch of his career, setting a career-high in points vs the Orlando Magic and a career-high in assists vs. the Phoenix Suns in successive games. In those two games, he’s also averaged over 15 free-throw attempts per game, roughly 13 free-throw attempts per game over his last four games, and a free-throw rate (.545) that is among the highest for any player since the All-Star break. His ability to draw free throws has become a topic of national discussion (and of course, that has brought the “Laker conspiracy” contingent out of the woodwork as well). However, when you dig deeper into Reaves’ playing history, his free-throw rate and craft to draw fouls aren’t some new phenomenon for those who have actually been paying attention. I explained more in the following video: Using the full context and Collapse

21 HRS AGO - Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images After two straight wins, the Lakers will look to keep this train to the play-in going with a win against a team trying to do the same: The Oklahoma City Thunder. After an upsetting, buzzer-beater loss suffered at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks, the Los Angeles Lakers have righted the ship with two straight wins against the Magic and Suns. Sadly, those two wins haven’t fully cleaned out the bad taste in the mouths of Lakers fans, as that game against the Mavericks was bigger than just being another loss. That’s due to the ninth-seeded Mavs being one of the teams jostling with the 10th-seeded Lakers for a spot in the play-in tournament. If the Lakers really want to put that brutal loss in the rear-view mirror, they’ll have a shot at redemption in the form of a game vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night. Heading into Thursday’s night of NBA action, the Thunder sat in the 8th seed in the Western Conference with the Lakers only Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images LeBron James was re-evaluated by the Lakers on Thursday and while the details remain vague, the consensus was good news as LeBron is still progressing forward. For the first time since being diagnosed with a foot tendon injury in early March, LeBron James was evaluated by the Lakers on Thursday. While the details were pretty vague, it was ultimately good news for the Lakers and LeBron. There is no updated timeline for LeBron or his return, but he is still improving on what the Lakers call a “gradual basketball movement progression.” LeBron James continues his on-court activity and is on a "gradual basketball movement progression," the Lakers said on Thursday. There is no specific timeline for his return to game action, according to the team.— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 23, 2023 Now, this may be some semantics, but LeBron himself pushed back against the notion that he was re-evaluated on Thursday and that there was any Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images Despite everything from the Lakers themselves indicating the contrary, the team is still being linked to Kyrie Irving as a potential destination this offseason. Perhaps in spite of themselves, the Lakers have put together a team with depth and talent that has helped at least keep them in the conversation for the play-in race through LeBron James’ injury. Days after trying to go all-in on Kyrie Irving, the Lakers pulled off a series of trades that brought in a host of players and reshaped the team. While the trades were a net positive for the Lakers and reports have indicated their desire to run it back — and specifically not pursue Irving — the links to Kyrie haven’t stopped. In some senses, it’s fair to assume the Lakers would be interested considering their desire for a third star between LeBron James and Anthony Davis and the number of times they’ve pursued Irving. In his latest substack letter, longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports After hosting them for a workout this week, the Lakers don’t seem set on signing either of Tristan Thompson or Tony Bradley. After hosting another pair of big men for workouts in Tristan Thompson and Tony Bradley this week, the Lakers seem to still be holding serve on using their final roster spot. After practice on Tuesday, head coach Darvin Ham confirmed the team hosted Thompson and Bradley for a workout, but said a signing of neither is imminent. Darvin Ham confirms that Tristan Thompson and Tony Bradley worked out for the Lakers yesterday, but clarified that “nothing is imminent.” He said the Lakers were doing their “due diligence” on evaluating big man options.— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) March 21, 2023 It’s not a particularly surprising development given how little the two have played this season. Thompson hasn’t suited up and Bradley has only played a small handful of games. No amount of PR spin about how good they may have looked in Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - From Anthony Davis’ decline in usage to Austin Reaves’ penchant for earning trips to the foul line, there’s a lot to discuss about the last week of Lakers basketball. The Lakers have come down some from the highs of their post-trade deadline acquisitions and hit a bit of a rough patch of late, going 6-4 over their last 10 games while losing a couple of disappointing matchups with the Rockets and the Mavericks in the last week. But even with some of those recent struggles, the Lakers are 10-6 since Feb. 11, and have flashed a renewed sense of belief in themselves — a belief that has been (mostly) mirrored by fans. With that, and in an homage to Zach Lowe (if you’re going to steal, do it from the best!), let’s take a look at a few things I’ve liked and disliked in my inaugural edition of Darius Soriano’s Lakers yeses and no’s... Anthony Davis’ Touches Going Down AD has come under some criticism in the last week, first for missing the Rockets game on the second night of a back-to-back Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images While the Lakers are slipping up in important games, they aren’t alone as the Western Conference play-in race is a mess of teams who don’t want to win. The Lakers have done themselves no favors in the last five days or so, losing games to bottom-of-the-league Houston and play-in rivals Dallas. Both losses were particularly frustrating for differing reasons and certainly made it feel like things were coming crashing down on the Lakers this season. The important context to note in all of this is that everyone in the play-in race is experiencing these types of losses. Houston also beat the Pelicans after the Lakers, OKC lost to the Raptors and Golden State lost to the Hawks as part of a 3-game losing streak. While it can certainly feel like opportunities missed — and they are — the end result after all of that is the Lakers are still 10th in the play-in and 1.5 games away from Dallas in sixth. Not much has changed in that Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images The Lakers medical staff gave Anthony Davis a choice of which of the Lakers’ final two back-to-backs he wanted to play in both games of, and he chose their final one vs. the Jazz and Clippers. When Anthony Davis sat out against the Houston Rockets on the second night of the Los Angeles Lakers’ most recent back-to-back last week, he (and the team) received quite a bit of criticism locally, and even nationally. Few cared that head coach Darvin Ham described Davis’ foot as “an active injury” that the team is still treating, or about reports that the team had always planned to continue sitting Davis on the second night of back-to-backs regardless of how many minutes he played on night one. The team lost a game they needed to win against a very beatable team, and fans were (justifiably) upset about it and looking for someone to blame. However, it also appears that aforementioned plan from the team’s medical staff may not be set in Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images Spearheaded by Austin Reaves and the bench, L.A. gets back in the win column. After a pair of disappointing losses, the Lakers found themselves back in the win column beating the Orlando Magic 111-105 on Sunday night. With the Lakers needing a win to wash out the bad taste left in their mouths from their letdown against Dallas, it was the bench players who stepped up and helped secure the victory. Austin Reaves, who arguably had his best game of his young career, continues to grow up before our very eyes. No longer just a “role player” who “makes the right play,” Reaves is straight up producing when given the opportunity. As the nominal lead ball-hander while D’Angelo Russell sat, and even when he was on the floor, Reaves was sensational, ending the night with 35 points, six assists and was a team-high +25. Dennis Schröder also continues to adjust well as part of the second unit as he chipped in 12 points and five assists off Collapse