Austin Reaves Opens Los Angeles Lakers Season With 82% True Shooting

Austin Reaves has posted an 82.0% true shooting percentage through the Los Angeles Lakers’ first three games, a stretch in which he has averaged 26.7 points and 6.3 assists. The Lakers are 3-0.

Reaves is shooting 63.9% from the field, 61.5% from three-point range and 89.7% from the line. The scoring and assist averages are well above his 2025-26 season, when he averaged 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game on 36.0% three-point shooting.

In the 132-123 win over the Utah Jazz on Oct. 25, he finished with 29 points on 7-of-12 shooting, 4 of 5 from three and 11 of 13 at the line, with one rebound, four assists, two blocks and one steal in 36 minutes. He had 28 points and nine assists in the Oct. 23 win over the Clippers.

The start builds on an established efficiency record. Reaves’ career true shooting percentage is 63.2%. The run also comes in the first season of the four-year, $180 million deal he signed with the Lakers.

Lakers coach JJ Redick said Reaves “so far in these three games has just been Mr. Consistency.” Luka Dončić said, “Obviously his efficiency, it’s off the roof.”

Where the Number Is Coming From

The three-point shooting is carrying most of it. Reaves’ 61.5% from deep is far above the 36.0% he shot in 2025-26, and he has taken only 13 attempts, a sample small enough that a cold week would move it sharply.

The free-throw line is the other half. Against Utah he took 13 free throws on 12 field-goal attempts, so 11 of his 29 points came from the line. He averaged 7.3 free-throw attempts a game last season, so the volume is not new.

The scoring and assist jump fits his larger role next to Dončić. When Reaves played without LeBron James in 2025-26, he averaged 28.4 points, 7.8 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game — a sample that SES argued before the season would show up in his playmaking more than his scoring.

Portland Visits Crypto.com Arena on Oct. 27

The Lakers host the Portland Trail Blazers on Oct. 27, then play at the LA Clippers at Intuit Dome on Oct. 28. Those games come one night apart, which makes Reaves’ free-throw volume on the second night the number worth watching.

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