Lakers News: Austin Reaves' Brother Helped Lithuania Strategize Against Team USA

Interesting loyalties.

Team USA's 2023 FIBA World Cup squad, featuring Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Austin Reaves as a key reserve, dropped its first game in the competition today against Lithuania, 110-104.

Reaves submitted his worst performance yet for Team USA on Sunday. The 6'5" wing out of Oklahoma played for just 13 minutes (to be fair, that was somewhat impacted by his fouling out), shot just 1-of-4 from the field, and chipped in no rebounds, assists, steals or blocks, while being hunted defensively by the opposition.

Lithuania absolutely targeting Austin Reaves and Steve Kerr immediately pulls him from the game after this and one. pic.twitter.com/05qah33xDq

— Kristian Winfield (@Krisplashed) September 3, 2023

Lithuania's high scorer in the surprising victory was Vaidas Kariniauskas with 15 points. The most memorable two points of that tally came when he backed down Reaves along the baseline to score an easy-looking jumper, and subsequently taunted LA's starting two guard with a Michael Jordan-esque tongue.

Apparently, Vaidas Kariniauskas was inspired to do so by an unlikely source: Reaves' older brother Spencer, who played alongside Kariniauskas on German BL club Brose Bamberg during the 2022-23 season.

"Nothing personal, just love of the game," Kariniauskas commented on the tongue display and his general taunting of Reaves throughout the contest. "I played with [Reaves' brother, Spencer], so I talked to him before the game and he said 'give [Austin] a trash talk'... So I give him some."

Here's that moment:

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Now 4-1 in games that count, Team USA (and Reaves) will have an opportunity to redeem itself on Tuesday, when it will face off against Team Italy in a Quarter-Finals matchup.

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