Austin Reaves made a game-saving shot; meanwhile, Luka Doncic drilled a game-winning shot. The win pushed the Lakers into third spot in the West, as JJ Redick’s plan came to fruition. But the plan was not followed to the T, yet it delivered the same result.

Reaves forced overtime when he intentionally missed a free throw, got the rebound, and scored on a floater to tie the score 118-118 with 1.9 seconds remaining. This gave the Nuggets the time to only try for a half-court winner, which they failed to do. AR made his first free throw with 5.2 seconds left, and it was JJ Redick who asked the star to miss his second.

The plan on paper was simple. Austin Reaves knew the plan and even claimed that he had tried at the AAU level before, and it had worked. Despite this, AR was not 100% sure about this strategy.

Speaking about his confidence in nailing that shot, the answer from the 27-year-old was “Not very.”

He continued, ” I mean, I knew I was going to miss. I wasn’t going to give the ball an opportunity to go in. Some people shoot high, and they end up making it on accident. But I don’t think my ball ever got over ten feet.” It was Luka Doncic who described the plan in his post-game conference.

“It was kind of amazing,” said Luka. “Actually, JJ told me to tell AR to miss right. So we miss left. So it was a good play. No, but actually that’s very hard to do and you know just for him to tie the game that gave us a win basically.” So, what was the plan?

When AR was on the charity strip, two Nuggets stars boxed to his right, and it was only Nikola Jokic to his left. Since Lakers center Deandre Ayton guarded the Joker, Reaves found his opening. Despite JJ Redick’s plan to hit the ball to the right for a rebound, Austin did it to the left.

“I thought if I threw it free fast enough, that Jokic wouldn’t have the time to get his hands up to grab the ball,” said Reaves. “So, this was the thought process, and it worked.”

Austin literally hit the rim perfectly in that situation and was lucky to grab his own rebound, and his 2 points would tie the game at 118. In the OT, it was Luka Doncic’s responsibility to secure the win, which he did.

After Austin Reaves, Luka Show captured the fans’ interest

The 127-125 victory over the Denver Nuggets gave the Lakers a 2-1 series win on Saturday. Should the two teams finish with the same record at the end of the year, Los Angeles will have the tie-breaker. With that responsibility on their shoulder, the team functioned as a unit. Ayton scored four of his nine points in overtime. Smart drilled an important three-pointer off an assist from Doncic for a 125-123 lead.

But Jokic scored in the post over Ayton to again tie the game. Luka Doncic scored on a fadeaway jumper in the final second of overtime to lift the Lakers. The Slovenian made an 18-foot jumper over Spencer Jones and Bruce Brown with less than a second left in overtime to secure the win. It was Lakers’ eighth win in nine games.

“I saw the double coming, so I rejected, went to my left hand, to my left step-back,” Doncic said. “I did it a couple times throughout my career, so I just trust the shot.” Both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves admitted that they had made similar plays before. But doing it against a contender in the West with the atmosphere like the playoffs needed extra courage. The duo dug deep and made sure to connect when it mattered.