Who is No. 12? Lakers Jake LaRavia let T-wolves

Jake LaRavia is not a family identify.

A first-round select of Wake Forest in 2022, the Lakers ahead has performed for three NBA groups without garnering an excessive amount of consideration — at least not until Wednesday evening’s sport against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Starting in his second straight sport for injury-depleted L.A., which has been without LeBron James all season and Luka Doncic the last three video games, LaRavia scored 27 factors on 10-of-11 capturing, including 5 of six from three-point vary).

Even then, LaRavia appeared to be toiling in obscurity. A quantity of followers at Minneapolis’ Target Center began shouting, “Who is No. 12?” — a real query as to the id of the sharpshooter torching their group.

LaRavia, who was born in Pasadena and grew up in Indianapolis, took discover of the puzzled followers and more than once gave them a smile and a slight wave in acknowledgment.

When one fan yelled “Who is No. 12?” early in the fourth quarter — after LaRavia hit a three-pointer to give the Lakers a 105-89 lead — it caught the eye of injured Minnesota star Anthony Edwards on the bench. Edwards responded by spreading his arms above his head and shouting, “That’s what I’m saying! I don’t know!”

FanDuel Sports Network broadcast the interplay between Edwards and the fan, and video clips of it have been circulating on social media. Again, LaRavia rolled with it all, writing “lol” in the feedback of one such clip and posting the video on his Instagram Story, along with the caption “Cap” (slang for when somebody is mendacity) and two laughing emojis.

The Lakers received the sport 116-115 on a last-second floater by Austin Reaves, who had a team-high 28 factors and 16 assists. Afterward, LaRavia credited Reaves for setting up most of his photographs.

“Yeah, I mean, Austin has 16 assists, so I think they all came from him,” LaRavia told reporters. “But yeah, I was knocking down shots and kind of just getting my rhythm and kept shooting. So when they’re falling, they’re falling.”

LaRavia beforehand performed his best basketball late in the 2023-24 season with Memphis, scoring a career-high 32 factors against Cleveland, 28 against the Lakers and 29 against Denver in the ultimate three video games of the season. He also scored 25 against the Lakers during a late-March sport that season.

After spending the first 2 1/2 years of his profession with the Grizzlies, LaRavia was despatched to the Sacramento Kings at the commerce deadline last season and turned a free agent after his contract option was not picked up this summer time. He was a profession 42.9% three-point shooter, averaging 6.9 factors and 3.3 rebounds per sport, when he was signed by the Lakers to be a complementary participant to the group’s larger names.

Necessity has given LaRavia a better function. His first start for the Lakers, which got here Monday in a 122-108 loss to Portland, didn’t go so properly (three factors on one-for-six capturing, lacking all three from three-point vary). LaRavia said a dialog with coach JJ Redick and common supervisor Rob Pelinka helped him get in the correct mindset for Wednesday’s sport.

“They have just been wanting me to be more aggressive scoring,” LaRavia said, “especially with everyone that we have out. … Our conversation with both of them [was] to just come out here and kind of play how I play. I think I did just that.”

He added: “It’s pretty much just like having a scorer’s mentality. A lot of times, I feel like when I’m in the game, I’m looking for an AR [Reaves] or someone else to get off the ball to, like hitting [Deandre Ayton] or whoever it is, and then to just come out tonight and be like, ‘I’m going to go score. I’m gonna be more aggressive myself so that when I am making shots, I can collapse the defense and then kick it out and stuff like that.’ Just to go out there and kind of have that scorers mentality.”

In addition to his scoring against Minnesota, LaRavia also had eight rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block, although Redick said his contributions have been even better than the numbers show.

“For Jake as a Laker, this game now is a reference point,” Redick told reporters after the sport. “Not only for the offense — again, two out of the last three games, he’s been phenomenal defensively. … He had six or seven deflections tonight. He ended up with one steal and a block, but that doesn’t really capture his level of activity defensively. And then just continuing to have confidence in his shot and belief in that was big.”

LaRavia will play in Memphis for the first time since the commerce Friday evening when the Lakers face the Grizzlies. Doncic is listed as questionable, and James is not anticipated to play.

Times workers writers Broderick Turner and Thuc Nhi Nguyen contributed to this report.