LOS ANGELES (USA) - For those that have seen Austin Reaves over the years, it's no surprise that he's making incredible plays and hitting game-winning shots for the Los Angeles Lakers this season.
In international hoops, he put his talent on display for the USA at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2023.
It's eye-popping impressive what Reaves, 27, is doing when the attention in Los Angeles is normally showered on celebrated teammates, Slovenian superstar Luka Doncic and 2024 Olympics MVP LeBron James of USA.
On great Lakers teams, though, supporting acts are stars, too.
It wasn't just Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but also James Worthy, AC Green, Michael Cooper and Kurt Rambis.
When Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant led the Lakers to NBA championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002, they had teammates like Derek Fish and Canada's Rick Fox.
In 2009 and 2010, Kobe and Spain national team star Pau Gasol led the Lakers.
They had great teammates like Fisher, Sasa Vujacic and Lamar Odom.
What's striking about this season's Lakers team, and the impact that Reaves and his teammates have had, is that James has yet to play because of an injury, and Doncic has been limited to just two games.
Yet the complementary pieces are so good, the Lakers are as exciting as ever.
Not only is there Reaves, but FIBA stars Rui Hachimura of Japan, and DeAndre Ayton of Bahamas.
Hachimura, the leading scorer of the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup in 2014, has played for Japan at the last two Olympic Games.
Ayton, 27, was an integral part of the Bahamas team at last year's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Valencia.
The Bahamas then came up one win shy of making it to the Summer Games in France.
It's been Reaves, more than anyone, that has ignited the Lakers this season.
Reaves is averaging 35.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists per contest.
He is third overall in scoring behind Philadelphia's Tyrese Maxey (37.5 points per game) and Milwaukee's Greek Freak, FIBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo (36.3 points per game).
Reaves is fifth in assists behind Denver's Serbian talisman Nikola Jokic (11.7 assists per game), Utah's Keyonte George (9.7 assists per game), Atlanta's Trae Young and Charlotte's LaMelo Ball (both 9.5 assists per game).
"I'M JUST HAVING SO MUCH JOY PLAYING BASKETBALL."
Austin Reaves
A player that dazzled for the USA at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 in Manila, when he shot 50 percent (13 of 26) from three-point range and had huge performances in the Semi-Finals against Germany (21 points, 7 of 10 FG shooting) and the Third-Place Game against Canada (23 points, 5 assists), Reaves has always had a flair for the dramatic.
This season already, his 25 points and 11 assists spearheaded the Lakers' march to a 128-110 victory over Minnesota. He dropped a head-turning 51 points on Sacramento in the next game, a 127-120 triumph over the Kings. In that contest, he had 11 rebounds and came up an assist shy of a triple-double.
In a 122-108 defeat to Portland, Reaves had 41 points.
His clutch gene was evident in the next outing, against Minnesota again on Wednesday night, when he not only had 28 points and 16 assists, but a buzzer-beating winner.
Reaves is reluctant to talk about himself, about why he's playing as well as he ever has, yet he was willing to say after the latest win: "I love to play the game of basketball.
"Obviously I wouldn't be able to do any of it without the coaching staff believing in me, the players believing in me. I'm just having so much joy playing basketball."
And Grant Hill, the USA Basketball men's national team general manager who got to know Reaves during their time together in 2023, will be taking note.
Reaves did not make the USA Olympic team the following year yet he has skin in the game with the American team since he played in Manila.
With the World Cup coming up in 2027 and the Olympics in Los Angeles the following year, he'd seem to be in as good a position as any player when it comes to being on the USA roster for those events.
FIBA