That sucks. Luckily, we have our superstar in Reaves, the unequivocal number 1 option who will lead this team to victory & if he does, you can roast me here. I'm secure enough to take it.
Here is the depth chart and all the lineups JJ played last night. (listed mainly in defensive order) 10/26/25 vs Sacramento Kings Game Vincent (19), Smart (16), Reaves (10), Manon (3) Reaves (29), Knecht (7), LaRavia (7), Smart (5) Smart (10), LaRavia (22), Vando (10), Knecht (6) Rui (32), Vando (12), LaRavia (4) Ayton (36), Rui (8), Vando (4) 1Q 12:00-6:02 Vincent/Reaves/Smart/Rui/Ayton 5:58 +6 6:02-5:34 Smart/Reaves/LaRavia/Vando/Ayton 0:28 -1 5:34-4:46 Reaves/Knecht/LaRavia/Vando/Ayton 0:48 +1 4:46-2:01 Reaves/Knecht/LaRavia/Vando/Rui 2:45 +0 2:01-0:00 Vincent/Smart/LaRavia/Vando/Rui 2:01 +3 2Q 12:00-10:01 Vincent/Smart/LaRavia/Rui/Ayton 1:59 -7 10:01-8:34 Vincent/Smart/Knecht/Rui/Ayton 1:27 -4 8:34-8:01 Smart/Reaves/Knecht/Rui/Ayton 0:33 +0 8:01-4:22 Smart/Reaves/Knecht/LaRavia/Vando 3:39 +3 4:22-3:47 Smart/Reaves/Vando/Rui/Ayton 0:35 -2 3:47-2:18 Vincent/Reaves/Vando/Rui/Ayton 1:29 -1 2:18-0:00 Vincent/Reaves/Vando/Rui/Ayton 2:18 +2 3Q 12:00-8:19 Vincent/Reaves/Smart/Rui/Ayton 3:41 +6 8:19-6:29 Smart/Reaves/LaRavia/Rui/Ayton 1:50 -7 6:29-6:11 Smart/Reaves/LaRavia/Vando/Ayton 0:18 +1 6:11-3:38 Manon/Reaves/LaRavia/Vando/Ayton 2:33 -2 3:38-3:12 Manon/Reaves/LaRavia/Vando/Rui 0:26 +1 3:12-0:40 Smart/Reaves/LaRavia/Vando/Rui 2:32 +4 0:40-0:00 Smart/Knecht/LaRavia/Vando/Rui 0:40 +2 4Q 12:00-9:11 Smart/Knecht/LaRavia/Rui/Ayton 2:49 -9 9:11-8:46 Smart/Reaves/LaRavia/Rui/Ayton 0:25 +3 8:46-7:34 Smart/Reaves/Vando/Rui/Ayton 1:12 +5 7:34-0:40 Reaves/LaRavia/Vando/Rui/Ayton 6:54 -1 0:40-0:32 Smart/Reaves/LaRavia/Rui/Ayton 0:08 +2 0:32-0:00 Smart/Reaves/Vando/Rui/Ayton 0:32 +2 I haven't gotten to go through this in depth yet, but the obvious thing is how phenomenal Austin was, going +22 and making almost every lineup work. Almost all the non-Reaves minutes were bad, some of them atrocious. Rui/Ayton without Austin didn't work. They need him to feed them. For some reason, Vando/Rui PF/C still worked, even without Austin. That's interesting, will have to keep an eye on that. The starting unit of Vincent/Reaves/Smart/Rui/Ayton was fantastic, going +12, evenly distributed in the 1Q & 3Q. Showing that Smart in the starting lineup makes the difference, whether Gabe is out there or not. Didn't love the Reaves/LaRavia/Vando/Rui/Ayton that JJ basically closed with for 7 min straight. Went -1, which was just enough to hang on, but needed Smart to be in there. The few Manon minutes were fine, so maybe JJ could have tried that again at some point, so that Smart would have been able to close. If I get more time, I'd like to look at each player's +/- with and without Austin and see what units might be able to hold their own when he rests. So far, it looks like some version of Smart/LaRavia/Vando/Rui/+1 is the solution. (I wrote this before knowing Smart would be out. This is probably too many injuries to overcome.)
Smart picked up an injury that’s why he sat and LaRavia came back in. It was a necessity rather than what JJ wanted to do in my opinion.
Oh okay, thanks, that's what I initially thought, but then JJ put Smart back in for the last 40 seconds for some reason, so I thought I had it wrong.
I think he brought him back for the inbounds play, to inbound the ball. Then Vando subbed in for LaRavia for the last defensive possession and he kept smart out there for a single stop. And that was pretty much it.
Expected Lineup PG Austin Reaves SG Jake LaRavia SF Dalton Knecht PF Rui Hachimura C Deandre Ayton Expecting Career high for Ayton,Rui and Laravia And Dalton with 5 3 ,s would be enough
