{"id":668898,"date":"2026-03-20T14:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/668898\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T14:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:55:16","slug":"austin-reaves-explains-why-he-played-against-miami-after-lebrons-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/668898\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Reaves Explains Why He Played Against Miami After LeBron’s Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was LeBron James<\/a> and Luka Doncic<\/a> who stole the show<\/a> for the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> in Thursday\u2019s 134-126 win<\/a> over the Miami Heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James turned in another triple-double with 19 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists. Doncic, on the other hand, went off for 60 points<\/a> on 18-of-30 from the floor, to go along with nine three-pointers, seven rebounds, three assists and five steals.<\/p>\n

The Lakers\u2019 third star, Austin Reaves, took a back seat on Thursday night. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard logged 18 points, five rebounds, four assists and two triples in 40 minutes of action. It wasn\u2019t exactly a mind-blowing performance from Reaves, but he still played a pivotal role in L.A.\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) \u00a9 Mark J&period; Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(\u00a9 Mark J&period; Rebilas-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

What makes the Lakers\u2019 victory even more impressive is that it was the second night of a back-to-back set for them. They took down the Houston Rockets<\/a> on Wednesday, 124-116. The Lakers then had to fly to South Beach for Thursday\u2019s matchup against Miami.<\/p>\n

It has been standard practice for the Lakers to have their stars sit out on back-to-backs. This was not the case against the Heat, though, with the Big 3 all suiting up.<\/p>\n

After the game, Reaves addressed his decision to play for a second time in two nights. The 27-year-old admitted that it had a lot to do with James also deciding to take the court against his former team.<\/p>\n

“When [LeBron] said he was playing, I couldn’t let a 41-year-old play, and I don’t,” Reaves said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James is 14 years the senior of Reaves. He\u2019s also in Year 23 of his illustrious NBA<\/a> career, while Reaves is merely in his fifth NBA season.<\/p>\n

As Reaves said, he just wasn\u2019t going to allow himself to sit out the second night of a back-to-back set after learning about James\u2019 decision to play.<\/p>\n

The good news for the Lakers is that they get the night off on Friday. Their next game is against the Orlando Magic<\/a> on Saturday. It will be another road matchup for L.A., which will be seeking its ninth straight win.<\/p>\n

Related: Bronny James Draws Attention for What He Did After Lakers Move<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was LeBron James and Luka Doncic who stole the show for the Los Angeles Lakers in Thursday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3778],"tags":[1013,7,144,194,185,150,368,295,189,3881,6,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-668898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-heat","8":"tag-austin-reaves","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-heat","11":"tag-houston-rockets","12":"tag-lebron-james","13":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","14":"tag-luka-doncic","15":"tag-miami","16":"tag-miami-heat","17":"tag-miamiheat","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-orlando-magic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116262086169262169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}