Lakers guard Austin Reaves, right, drives in front of Brooklyn Nets center Day’Ron Sharpe during the first half Friday at Crypto.com Arena. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
The time had come, the Lakers decided, to make a choice.
Since trading for D’Angelo Russell and playing him with Austin Reaves, the two guards largely alternated in the spotlight surrounding LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The touches, the shots, the responsibility — it usually always was split.
But gradually over the course of this season, that changed. Russell moved to the bench, Reaves becoming the primary ballhandler. And a trade with Brooklyn in December cemented it — the Lakers had cemented it.
Reaves was going to be their guy.
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Friday in Russell’s first game back in Los Angeles since being dealt to the Nets, Reaves had a career-high 38 points to help drag the Lakers across the finish line to a 102-101 win.
Russell had a chance to win the game — after a string of Reaves misses in the final two minutes — but his three-point attempt didn’t fall.
And while Reaves and James got hot in the fourth, the game was hardly as easy as it could’ve been — and they knew it early.
James backed up past midcourt and away from the Lakers’ bench after he made a three-point shot to end the first quarter. He felt that something wasn’t totally right in the building Friday night, that the rhythm was off and that the energy was flat.
So he put his hands in the air and begged for cheers. The crowd, having just witnessed 12 minutes of basketball at its most mild, reluctantly obliged.
Nothing came easy for the Lakers (22-17) against a team fresh off a 59-point loss to the Clippers. And the crowd would eventually get into it — but only when it became clear the Lakers might actually lose.
James and Reaves, though, scored 25 of the Lakers’ 30 fourth-quarter points.
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The Lakers again were without Dorian Finney-Smith, who remained away from the team because of the birth of his child. The team also learned shortly before game time that Davis wouldn’t play because of issues connected to an ongoing foot problem that’s kept him on the injury report for most of the last month. The Lakers had listed him as “probable” ahead of Friday with plantar fasciitis, and Davis went through his normal pregame workout before being downgraded and eventually ruled out.
It should’ve been no excuse.
Brooklyn was without its leading scorers, Cam Thomas and Cameron Johnson, with Johnson expected to be one of the most sought-after players before the Feb. 6 NBA trade deadline.
The Lakers, in fact, have spoken with the Nets (14-28) about Johnson, according to people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly. But the cost for the 6-foot-8 forward, who is averaging 19.6 points on 42.8% shooting from three, is thought to be two first-round picks.
The Lakers could have Finney-Smith and Davis back Sunday when they play the Clippers for the first time in the Intuit Dome.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.