Austin Reaves on Russell Westbrook: 'He's one of the best teammates I've ever had'

But they stood still in February when much of their competition didn’t, ripped off a win streak after the All-Star break and secured the third seed. Internally, they feel strong about their performance in that first-round, seven-game defeat against the Warriors. “At the time, (the league) had (Kevin Durant) going to Phoenix, (Russell) Westbrook going to the Clippers, Kyrie (Irving to Dallas) and all this stuff. We kind of stood pat…” McNair said. “We didn’t do anything major, and we were kind of relying on the continuity of what we’d built and our chemistry. We certainly got lucky. We had some injuries on other teams that helped us out coming out of the break. But I do think you see (that) trying to assimilate new players and new coaches and things like that on the fly can work, but it also carries risk.” -via The Athletic / July 19, 2023

A source close to James Harden, given anonymity so they could speak freely, told The Athletic that Harden began showing interest in joining the Clippers as early as late June, prior to the decision to opt into the final year of his contract to facilitate a trade, and incumbent Clippers point guard Russell Westbrook was aware of Harden’s interest prior to re-signing. -via The Athletic / July 18, 2023

Bridges had to eventually see what the NBA was about and he experienced that, as he says, against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Bridges and the Suns faced the Thunder during his rookie season for the first time on Oct. 28 and while Phoenix lost 117-110, the native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was a team-leading +16. Bridges explained why this game was his “welcome to the NBA” moment in a recent interview with the “Run Your Race” podcast: “My welcome to the NBA (moment) was when Russ (Russell Westbrook) and Paul George, and (expletive) Steven Adams, man. Playing them, I’m just like, I gotta guard Russ. (He’s) gonna go at me, full speed. He’s gonna try to dunk me. He’s gonna bully me. Then, you got Paul George. He’s gonna try to mix me and try to make me fall. Then, you got Steven Adams. When I don’t guard him (Westbrook) one on one, I gotta get in a ball screen. Let him (Adams) set every screen. That was one game where I like walked in the locker room and was like, my body hurts. I’m just like, I just played an NBA game for real. That was like 10 games in. That’s my moment.” -via Nets Wire / July 18, 2023

Gilbert Arenas: @kingjames can y’all drug test @austinreaves12 PLS…this man didn’t say (IVERSON) but roy and the only person we call roy is (Roy fucking gatorade drinking on the bench ass HIBBERT) 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 don’t confuse him with 🗣️B-ROY Mr natural aka Mr smooth, Mr7 #MrROY 💯 Austin next outburst like that and u will be traded to the sister team (clippers) 😇😂💯 -via Instagram / July 22, 2023

“We heard a rumor, and we don’t like to start troubles here, but we heard something about Taylor Swift meeting you somewhere,” Matt Barnes asked at the 37:07 mark of the above video. Reaves and Stephen Jackson both got some jokes off about it, while Reaves seemed to find the whole thing very funny, presumably because the whole thing is very funny. But when he finally got the chance to give his side of … whatever we wanna call this, Reaves admitted that none of it is true. “I have never met her, never talked to her … all bullsh*t, I ain’t never talked to her,” Austin Reaves said. When Jackson asked if he would be interested in dating Swift, Reaves said his plan is to “stay out the media.” This might be difficult for him to do, as he just signed a 4-year, $54 million deal to remain with the Lakers, but who knows? -via Uproxx / July 21, 2023

Clutch Points: “It’s honestly hell… You literally can’t ever relax. I remember Game 1 and 2, chasing him and Klay around, and I couldn’t make a shot… I’m like ‘I ain’t got no legs!’” Austin Reaves describes guarding Steph Curry in the Playoffs🥵 (via @shobasketball) pic.twitter.com/EmxJMCwph7 -via Twitter @ClutchPointsApp / July 20, 2023