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Austin Reaves Assigns Blame After Lakers' Loss to Timberwolves

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Matt Wadleigh | Last updated May 1, 2025 1:48 AM ET

The Los Angeles Lakers' playoff run ended on Wednesday night with a 103-96 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert were too much as the Timberwolves won the series in five games, and the Luka Doncic-LeBron James duo fell short with a first-round exit.

While there were a lot of issues with LA in this series, one big red flag was the play of Austin Reaves. The guard did not look like himself throughout the series and played poorly once again on Wednesday.

In Game 5, Reaves had just 12 points on 5-of-14 from the field with six turnovers, a 2-of-10 clip from three, and four fouls in 40 minutes of playing time.

After the game, Reaves hid no feelings about his poor performance and pointed the finger at himself, per Mike Trudell.

"I didn’t have the series that I wanted to have," Reaves said. "You can point the finger at me. I wasn’t good enough to help us be successful. I wish I coulda done more. I didn’t. I struggled. You live and you learn, and I guarantee that I’ll get back to work this offseason and be better.”

Reaves, who has become the third option behind LeBron and Luka, scored 20 or more points in just one game this series.

During the regular season, Reaves averaged 20.2 points with 5.8 assists and 4.5 rebounds, so he took a giant step back in this series.

Now, questions will swirl around the Lakers, but it will be a tough pill for Reaves to swallow knowing he didn't play his best on the big stage.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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