NBA IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT

December 9, 2023

Austin Reaves

Los Angeles Lakers

Championship Postgame

Lakers 123, Pacers 109

Q. Austin, 28 points tonight. Did you feel you needed to contribute that much to earn your half a million? What are you going to do it with it by the way, all that money?

AUSTIN REAVES: Honestly, I have no idea. The only thing I could actually think of is join a golf club in L.A. somewhere, so I can golf whenever I want out there.

I just try to play the game the right way and everything kind of worked tonight.

Q. It's been a big day with this and with Ohtani coming. What does it mean for you specifically to bring hardware to Los Angeles?

AUSTIN REAVES: It means a lot. The sports in L.A. is I think second-to-none. Just to be in a place that loves the game of basketball, one, but sports in general is sweet. Hopefully we can bring the city championships throughout all sports.

Q. AD, what can you say about his performance tonight? We saw him screaming to the crowd, and you don't really see that from him often. Just the energy that he brought and the vocal-ness.

AUSTIN REAVES: Yeah, I don't think I really need to say anything. I think all what he did stood for itself. He was big on the offensive glass, always defense and then obviously 41 points is a lot of points. When he plays like that, there's probably no one, not many people better than him in the league.

Shout-out to him for doing that tonight, and basically for the whole season we've had so far.

Q. There's a lot of basketball to be played between now and the goal that you guys have for this team this season. But did going through this process affirm anything for you? You called this the most talented team, I believe, but specifically defensively, did this show what you kind of a defense this group could potentially build and what would that mean for you guys in terms of accomplishing that big goal later?

AUSTIN REAVES: Yeah, any time -- they had 99 with I think two to play or 1:30 to play. Any time you can hold the No. 1 offense in the league and a guy like Tyrese, his efficiency and the way he plays the game -- I thought regardless of Cam's points, rebounds, assists, I thought he was one of the best players on the floor tonight with the way he pressured, kind of deaded their outlets and slowed their pace down.

As a unit, everybody seemed to be locked in on the task at hand. If that's the case, we believe we can be really good.

Q. AD himself said you guys have bigger goals and you want to be in this position here in June, but what does winning the first inaugural NBA Cup mean to you?

AUSTIN REAVES: It's awesome. Any time you can be the first to win or do anything or win anything, it's cool. The money is obviously a good, extra bonus, but any time we get on the court and compete as a unit, we want to win regardless of the tournament or regular-season game. To be able to say that we won the first one is really cool.

Q. Do you view yourself as that third guy behind LeBron and AD? What is your role on this team --

AUSTIN REAVES: I don't know. I don't think about it. Obviously, we got a lot of really good players, especially D-Lo. And I think those, that third role, or third-star comment could kind of just be thrown around. It could be anyone on any night.

Like I said about Cam tonight, he didn't score a lot but I felt like he was one of the best players on the court with the way he defended and really changed the game on that end of the floor. But I don't think anybody on our team is worried about who the third guy or fourth guy or fifth guy is. We just want to win.

Q. Undrafted, small town, Oklahoma, a lot of people watching you back home, what does it feel to be on the bright lights, big stage, get a win today, and show people that it's possible?

AUSTIN REAVES: It means a lot. I've spoke about it a lot. Just being able to bring light to kids that had the same situation as I did growing up. You know, for me, being from a small town of 1,100 people, not a lot of people leave that graduate high school. They might go to college and stay there and basically just work their whole life there and find a job around the town that you live in.

But just being able to show kids that it's possible to chase your dream, and regardless of what your dream is, don't let anybody tell you that it's not possible. I probably had a lot of people look at me sideways when I was running around school, telling everybody I wanted to be in the NBA. I didn't care what they thought. I was just going to chase that regardless.