The journey home is supposed to feel warm, familiar and forgiving. ForLakersguardAustin Reaves, it felt anything but during the team’s first two playoff games of the Western Conference semifinals.

The Lakers’ second-round matchup withthe Thunderwas supposed to be a full-circle moment for Reaves. Born and raised in Newark, Ark. —population 1,000— Reaves played most of his college ball at nearby Norman, where he sharpened his game at theUniversity of Oklahoma, just a 20-minute drive from OKC.

So for Games 1 and 2 of this series, Reaves had a plethora of friends, family and familiar faces make the drive from Arkansas or Norman to watch the kid they used to call “Hillbilly Kobe” back on the playoff stage.

But for Reaves, his homecoming did not get off to a good start. Game 1 was a collapse you could feel happening in real time. Reaves missed shots he normally buries in his sleep. By the end of the night, hescored eight pointson 3-of-16 shooting, 0-for-5 from deep. His 18.8 FG% was thelowest in Lakers’ playoff historyby a player with at least 15 attempts.

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“I had a lot of people here,” Reavessaid after the game. “When you don’t play well, it sucks.”

The weight of his historically bad performance lingered into Game 2, but it didn’t break him. Reaves has built a career on something he calls his “delusional confidence.” He’s had it since he was a kid, and it’s allowed him to believe in himself when nobody else does.

In Game 2, he used that delusional confidence to come out firing, dropping aplayoff career-high31 points. But even that bounce-back performance came with a cost. Reaves had five turnovers and severalconfrontations with officialsthat spilled into a postgame spat that went viral.

Austin Reaves and the Lakers team talking to the refs after the final buzzer.pic.twitter.com/kTwa88fr6f

Austin Reaves full postgame comments after his playoff career-high 31 points in the Lakers loss 125-107 to the OKC Thunder tonightpic.twitter.com/XlCW1PHOUg

Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos