Why Austin Reaves threw himself ‘under the bus’ after Raptors win

The Los Angeles Lakers have been a pleasant surprise so far this season, making a run into the Western Conference playoffs with a hot start to the 2025-26 season. They managed to do it despite some injuries and other situations that caused both LeBron James and Luka Doncic to miss games.

It was on Thursday evening Doncic was on the sidelines as he attended the birth of his second child again in Slovenia, but that didn’t stop the Lakers. Austin Reaves had a monster game on the road against the Toronto Raptors and Rui Hachimura hit the game-winning 3-pointer in a 123-120 win in Los Angeles.

Despite the great game, Reaves admitted that he almost made a big mistake at the end of the game and initially he had the wrong result when the Lakers got the ball back after Brandon Ingram missed a layup with 20 seconds left.

“Hats off to a guy who just cares about winning and playing hard, that’s what he’s done his whole career.”

Austin Reaves (44 PTS, 5 REB, 10 AST) talks to the media after #Lakers Toronto’s 123-120 win over the Raptors. #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/m0GgcVGJMI

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) December 5, 2025

“I’m going to throw myself under the bus here,” Reeves said. “We got a rebound, LeBron threw it to me and I’m running the court and I thought we were down by one. … And then I looked up and it was 120-120, so that’s bad game awareness from me.”

Luckily for the Lakers, Reaves eventually came to his senses and forced the Lakers to look hard, creating a four-on-three opportunity for James. Despite James’ incredible 10-point game streak in jeopardy, the star forward still made the right play and found Hachimura for the wide-open game winner.

James had a hitting streak of 1,297 games consecutive double-digit scoring streak ended, streak dating back to 2007. However, after the game he insisted that the victory was the only thing that mattered.

While James’ streak and Hachimura’s layup stole most of the headlines, Reaves was still the star of the show in this win. He finished with 44 points on 13-for-21 shooting with 10 assists, surpassing 40 points for the third time in four games without Doncic in the lineup. While his backfield teammate should be back very soon, Reaves has proven he can carry a heavy load when needed and he did so again Thursday.