Austin Reaves goes off for Team USA and LeBron was absolutely loving it

A number of players performed, but Austin Reaves’ impact coming off the bench was perhaps the most impressive for Team USA’s FIBA World Cup debut.

Team USA blew out Puerto Rico 117-74 in Monday’s FIBA World Cup exhibition. During the matchup, coaches, fans, and even former Team USA players noticed Austin Reaves flourishing. Coming off the bench, Reaves created separation, knocked down his open looks, played picturesque on and off-ball defense, and shared the ball well with his new teammates on the second unit.

Reaves played such a complete game that his Lakers teammate (you may have heard of him?) took to Twitter to give Austin his props:

LeBron James is a big fan of his Lakers teammate Austin Reaves

Reaves’ plug-and-play attitude helped Team USA win by a comfortable margin of 43 points. Austin Reaves finished the game with nine points, four rebounds, and four assists shooting 4-of-9 from the field. He also had a few defining moments of greatness on defense, forcing Puerto Rico to settle for some tough shots.

After the game, in an interview with Bill Raftery and Adam Amin, AR-15 talked about how LeBron’s shoutout felt and what it’s like being teammates with one of the greatest players of all time.

“That’s my guy.” Reaves said about LeBron. “You know, I’ve learned a lot from him in the past two years. And, you know it feels good when he kinda validates that you can actually play. It’s been a special two years and hopefully, we can go win a championship this year.”

Coming up, the United States prepares to face the national teams of Slovenia and Spain in friendlies on Aug. 12 and Aug. 13, respectively. Both games will tip off at 3:30 p.m. ET with USA vs. Slovenia airing on FS1 and USA vs. Spain on FOX.