Lakers News: How Team USA's Top Scorer Changed His Role To Help Americans, Austin Reaves Advance

It seemed to pay off on Tuesday!

Ahead of his third year with your Los Angeles Lakers, shooting guard Austin Reaves' summer job has been going pretty darn well.

On Tuesday, the 6'5" swingman remained an invaluable, big-minutes contributor to Team USA's epic 100-63 blowout of Team Italy during the quarterfinals of the ongoing 2023 FIBA World Cup tournament.

Joe Vardon of The Athletic writes that it took a big adjustment from the player ahead of Reaves in the Americans' rotation, Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star shooting guard Anthony Edwards, to help bring the win home. Edwards has been the leading scorer for Team USA, including a 35-point outing on Sunday.

“Ant could get 30 whatever he wants, like easily,” the game's leading scorer, Brooklyn Nets small forward Mikal Bridge (24 points), observed. “We talked to him and tried to help him out just to find guys, and that’s what he did. And he’s probably the happiest dude in the locker room right now.”

“So, you know, shout out to Ant for that and he knows how dominant he is. … I think we kind of fed off that, you know, once we saw Ant doing that and how happy he was, and everybody kind of had that joy as well.”

Edwards shot just 1-of-6 from the floor for three points, but chipped in three true assists and a bunch of "hockey assists" (i.e. the pass that leads to the pass that yields a bucket).

Reaves chipped in 12 points, four boards and three assists of his own off the bench.

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