 | | The Art of Taking a Charge | | From the Perspectives of Marcus Smart and Austin Reaves | | by Taylor Geas | | | The act of taking a charge is representative of true selflessness and sacrifice, it requires top-tier defensive intellect…and the Los Angeles Lakers have three guys ranked in the top 10 in the league. | | | How do you become the type of player who seeks out the most brutal play in basketball? Grow up with two older brothers who used to rough you up as a kid.
Yes, if you got tuned up by an older sibling or even a cousin, you will probably willingly perform this sacrificial basketball play. Maybe alongside a few more attributes.
That’s the case for Marcus Smart, who ranks second in the league at the time this article was written with 20 charges drawn, and Austin Reaves, tied at fourth with 15.
Smart and Reaves are wildly different players, but that’s the interesting part of this act, it doesn’t have to do with role, position, or specialty. It’s personality. Mindset. A will, Smart said.
Growing up to be someone who’s okay with getting speared in the chest for the good of the team is the result of “just being a warrior, I guess,” as Smart put it. “I was the youngest of four boys so having to fight, having to defend myself is always something I’ve had to do and been really good at. I don’t see any difference here on the basketball court.”
For Reaves, also the younger sibling who used to get banged up by his brother, it was his only option. “I was never athletic enough to get blocks. The next best thing was to take a charge. My parents were pretty strict with me growing up. They’d tell me, ‘You can’t get out of the way.’”
“Really?” he was asked.
“Yeah, they considered it a winning play as well.”
“That’s a sacrificial play,” head coach JJ Redick said. “You’ve got to put your body on the line. The guys have been motivated to do that all year.” |  | It shows: the Lakers lead the league with 60 charges taken, with a handful of games still remaining. They also have three players ranked in the top 10; Luka Dončić being the third.
Drawing a charge is the ultimate winning play because, according to Smart, it’s the only thing in basketball that does four positive things for you. “It’s an offensive foul. It’s a team turnover. It’s also a personal foul. And it’s most likely on one of the team’s best players which probably deters them from coming in the next time.”
But the margin for error in drawing a charge is small; the act has to be precise. The defender must be set, with two feet in place before the shooter goes up. The defender has to be in the right spot, if their foot’s in the restricted area, they’ll be called. The defender has to absorb contact from a low shoulder or drive through the torso. And most importantly, the defender has to lose balance, they have to fall.
That’s got to be the most unnerving part, knowing you’re going down. But elite athletes train their bodies to fall the right way. It comes down to reflexes, absorbing impact, and changing the direction of your momentum. Skateboarders do this. Gymnasts do too. And so do basketball players. “You learn to fall more gracefully. I don’t know if there’s an actual science behind it,” Reaves noted.
Maybe a little science, maybe a little art. But the better you get at falling, the braver you can be.
Smart says timing comes down to instincts; Reaves cites intuition.
When taking a charge in the post, Smart encourages setting your feet right before the player gets to his gather and takes off. But at halfcourt, it’s about predicting a player’s tendencies. If you know a player always goes right, get set and see.
“It’s not fun. There’s nothing fun about it. There’s nothing flashy about it. But it helps the team tremendously,” Smart pointed out. |  | When asked if there was anybody in the league he wouldn’t take a charge from, Smart replied, “Actually no. There’s nobody in the league I wouldn’t take a charge from. I’ve taken a charge from pretty much everybody that you would say or think you wouldn’t want to take a charge from.”
But for Reaves, there is one player.
“Oh Zion (Williamson),” he says quickly with a laugh. “I told y’all when we were doing media one time, he was going downhill when we were playing them here and I just got out the way. I was like I think it’s more beneficial for our team for me not to be completely broken.”
As one of the Lakers primary ballhandlers and avid scorers, it was a wise decision.
Speaking of scorers, there’s another primary ballhandler sporting purple and gold who’s on the NBA’s top ten list for drawing charges this season, for the first time in his career.
Dončić ranks seventh with 14 charges, yes, one behind Reaves.
“Just trying to copy Marcus and AR,” Dončić gave as his reasoning.
But Smart speculated it’s a defensive tactic that serves prolific scorers.
Dončić didn’t seek guidance from Smart per say, “I think he was just watching and understanding,” Smart said. “I think more so watching Austin who’s not a player that’s necessarily known for sacrificing his body. He probably said, if he can do it, I can do it.”
Reaves laughed and shared how Dončić told him the other day that he’s taken more charges this year than in his career combined. “When you have your best player willing to sacrifice his body, that means a lot,” he said.
But unlike Smart and Reaves, Luka doesn’t have an older brother or sister who used to toughen him up. His main role on this team is to score in a miraculous fashion. So why does he do it?
“It’s more about the group and who’s committed to winning and whatever it takes to win. Everybody’s bought into doing all the things that aren’t the most fun to do,” Reaves said.
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