The Los Angeles Lakers are listing guard Austin Reaves (right groin strain) as out for the team’s contest against the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night while Maxi Kleber (abdominal muscle strain) has been upgraded to questionable.
Reaves has missed the Lakers’ last two games with this issue, but the team has been victorious in both contests.
The injury is believed to be a minor one, but one that the Lakers want to be cautious with especially so early on in the season. In fact, prior to the Lakers’ game against the San Antonio Spurs, head coach JJ Redick made it clear that the team wants to be safe and not risk aggravating the injury further.
“That’s a TBD,” Redick said when asked when he expects Reaves to return. “He’s got some soreness in that right groin and he wanted to get a workout in with Beau (Levesque) after shootaround to kind of test it. We’re not gonna test it in shootaround so felt like it was the right decision both from him and performance to hold him out tonight. A further injury on that is hard. I’ve had them, I had that surgery. So we’re just trying to be safe with him, and hopefully [he returns] Saturday. But we’re not gonna put him at risk.”
The injury comes as Reaves was enjoying the best run of his young career, playing at an All-Star level to begin the season. So far in seven games played, Reaves is averaging 31.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 9.3 assists while shooting 48.9% from the field and 90.3% from the free throw line on more than 10 attempts per game while helping the Lakers stay afloat while dealing with injuries to superstars Luka Doncic and LeBron James.
Meanwhile, Kleber has a chance to make his season debut after missing the first nine games with an abdominal injury. If he is able to play, he could provide the Lakers with another frontcourt option that can stretch the floor.
Aside from Reaves and Kleber, the rest of the injury report remained the same for the Lakers with LeBron James (right sciatica), Adou Thiero (left knee surgery recovery) and Gabe Vincent (left ankle sprain) all remaining out.
The Lakers have won five straight contests and will look to keep that streak going as they kick off a five-game road trip in Atlanta against a Hawks team that is without star point guard Trae Young due to a sprained MCL.
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