Austin Reaves has come a long ...

Austin Reaves has always believed that the moment can wait. The game comes first, with the following play taking precedence. Reflection comes afterwards.

It's an attitude that's allowed none of this to feel too huge, that it's always been possible for someone from a little country community to be on the same team as the finest basketball players in the world.

Reaves didn't stop when he found himself guarding Anthony Davis in the post during the team's first pickup game, like he did during his unofficial test with the Lakers at Las Vegas minicamp.

"In my brain, I'm thinking, 'Child, you're trying to protect me? You must change. 'Are you serious?'" Davis explained to The Los Angeles Times. "I receive the ball, back up, and he snatches it from me."

As Reaves led the Lakers through the fourth quarter of a must-win game against the Orlando Magic, he flipped the ball into the hoop after drawing a foul. As he flexed and the crowd chanted “M-V-P,” he looked into the stands to find his best friends for more than 20 years, Trent Swaim and Keaton Wheeler, cheering in the sea of Lakers fans.

“It’s almost too good to be true,” Reaves told The Times.

Sunday, he scored a career-high 35 points in the Lakers’ 111-105 win against Orlando, the undrafted guard from a tiny Arkansas town the center of attention in Los Angeles with the friends he cares about most celebrating with him “That’s dope as hell,” Davis said.

Reaves showed the different parts of his offensive game. He got to the rim, he left defenders frozen with his footwork and he created space and then contact to get to the free-throw line a career-most 18 times. The Magic, as a team, only shot 17.

“This is the first time Trent’s been in L.A., the first game he’s come to out here,” Reaves said. “For him and Keaton to be here for this...when I got the bucket and it was tied with a minute whatever left, I casually glanced up there. And he ran a marathon this morning, came back in pretty rough shape and couldn’t stand. “But he was there on his feet, hands in the air. It was almost too good to be true.” At this point, though, any surprises from Reaves are probably the result of ignorance to his game.

He’s developed strong rapport with Davis and LeBron James in his time with the team, and in this last stretch with James’ sidelined, he’s played some of the best offensive basketball of his NBA career.

During the game, he smiled as he sat in the chair at the end of the team’s bench, his legs crossed and arms folded over his knee as the crowd serenaded Reaves with “MVP” chants.

“To hear this crowd chanting MVP, it was shaking the whole stadium,” Swaim said. It was something you see...well, I’ve never seen anything like it. It was insane.” “Crazy,” Wheeler said while shaking his head.

The win pushed the Lakers (35-27) back into the top 10 in the West, if only by a fraction, after losses to Houston and Dallas zapped the momentum the team has built since the trade deadline.

Needing to stop that losing streak just at two, Reaves scored 13 points in the fourth, including the final 10 for the Lakers to seal the win. The crowd let Reaves know that no one else was more valuable.