'Emo Austin Reaves' born in Lakers' Game 2 NBA playoffs loss ESPN

The Los Angeles Lakers are down 2-0 to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference finals. Or are they "down, down?"

What went wrong? Maybe it was "all the small things," if you asked the emo version of Austin Reaves.

1 Related

On the court, Reaves had 22 points in Game 2. He was tied with LeBron James as the team's high scorer. Reaves also hit 5 of 9 3-pointers in the 108-103 loss. You might say Reaves was wearing the loss like so much hair dye and eyeliner. He showed up to his postgame news conference in a black T-shirt with messy, wet hair. And the emo meme version of the Lakers' guard was born on NBA Twitter.

Am I more than you bargained for yet?I've been dying to tell youAnything you wanna hear'Cause that's just who I am this week

-Austin Reaves, emo hooper. https://t.co/RtsfEs01cf

— Pat Gallen (@PatGallenCBS3) May 19, 2023

One fan online took to calling Reaves "Court Cobain" in reference to late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Nirvana, however, is grunge and definitely not emo. Maybe "Pistol Pete Wentz" would be a better nickname.

The series goes to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC). The Lakers have not lost at home during the postseason, so there likely won't be a panic at the Crypto, and they'll face Nikola Jokic and "these kind of things with a sense of poise and rationality."