Austin Reaves continues to play the hero, with the Lakers defeating rival Phoenix Suns

Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham sat in front of reporters in the press conference room, a slight smile on his face. The Lakers captain's feelings were understandable after he changed the starting lineup and brought home a 122-111 victory over rival Phoenix Suns.

"A little change. Do you guys like it?", coach Darvin Ham asked reporters before going on air.

He alluded to his own sharing before the match, saying that "I will play a little bit in the starting lineup this match" and did not reveal the 5 names to start the game.

That change is named after Austin Reaves, the owner of the 35-point career-high match 2 days ago. The young Lakers defender replaced Malik Beasley to start with D'Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, Troy Brown Jr and Anthony Davis.

“For me, the mindset before every game is the same, it's to win at all costs. That's the most important thing for us at the moment, not coming on from the bench or the starting XI," Austin Reaves told reporters after the game.

The Los Angeles Lakers overcame the Utah Jazz to climb to 10th place on the Western chart. They have 37 losses and 36 wins, currently 1.5 games away from 6th place of the Golden State Warriors.

“Of course we don't want to be in this position in the rankings. We want to be among the top teams. But then many things happened and the team was in the current position.

Every game has a lot of pressure, but it's also what makes us love the sport. Everyone wants to challenge themselves in a high-pressure environment on a big stage, a perfect place to showcase their talents," Reaves added.

The inclusion of Austin Reaves in the starting lineup brought diversity in the Los Angeles Lakers' attack. They possess many spearheads that can both score points and create assists for their teammates.

Not only Reaves with 25 points and 11 assists, the Lakers also have D'Angelo Russell (26 points, 6 assists) and Anthony Davis (27 points, 5 assists). The three took turns putting pressure on the Phoenix Suns defense and causing the opponent to collapse in the final round.

The remaining group of players has two prominent names, Dennis Schroder and Jarred Vanderbilt. Each added 13 points in the Lakers' win.

Malik Beasley returned to the bench and had 6 points (2-5 3PT) and 4 rebounds. Both of his 3-pointers are important in the eyes of coach Darvin Ham:

“I have to respect Beasley, who was extremely professional when he returned to the reserve team and still performed to the best of his ability when he came on. Beasley got three important points for the team and we need that."

Beasley's six points helped the Los Angeles Lakers break through to the Phoenix Suns in the second half, bringing the gap between the two teams to 7 points. Round 3 was the stage of Anthony Davis when this bigman alone scored 14 points.

Then in the final round, the entire Lakers team shined to fight against the Suns' attempt to reverse the tide. The series of 10-2 points came in the middle of the 4th half to help the LA team take the initiative and win the final.

Although this is a highly collective victory, coach Darvin Ham still decided to send "wings" to Austin Reaves.

“We need to start with speed and efficiency, not 10-12 points in the first half like what the team did. So I picked Austin from the start to bring variety and speed to the starting lineup.

The fact that he plays his role well, playing effectively for himself as well as his teammates has brought a very positive sign for the whole team," added the Los Angeles Lakers captain.

This result helped the yellow and purple jersey team to break the circuit of 12 matches that lost all to the Phoenix Suns at the Regular Season, winning for the first time against the rival since May 27, 2021 (in the Playoffs round).

In their next outing, the Los Angeles Lakers will continue to have an important game when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday morning, March 25. The two teams are in direct competition for play-in and Playoffs tickets, so this is a must-win with both the Lakers and Thunder.