The Los Angeles Lakers announced that guard Austin Reaves has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury and will be out for the remainder of the regular season.
Redick revealed on Saturday that Reaves underwent imaging on his injury that clearly hampered him in the team’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. While Reaves didn’t sound concerned when talking about it afterwards, the MRI obviously showed a significant injury that will force him to miss the final five games of the regular season. According to Shams Charania of ESPN, Reaves will miss 4-6 weeks:
Lakers' Austin Reaves is expected to miss four to six weeks with the Grade 2 oblique injury, sources tell ESPN. Devastating run of injuries to L.A.'s two leading scorers. Reaves and Luka Doncic are expected to be sidelined to begin the NBA playoffs. https://t.co/E2495zVWqH
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 4, 2026
This comes at an unfortunate time for the Lakers as Luka Doncic is also out for the rest of the regular season after being diagnosed with a Grade 2 left hamstring injury. It remains to be seen if Reaves and Doncic will be able to return for the start of the playoffs, but the Lakers will give them as much time as they need to get back to 100% to avoid these becoming long-term issues.
With Doncic, Reaves and Marcus Smart all dealing with injuries, that leaves Bronny James, Nick Smith Jr. and Kobe Bufkin as the remaining guard options for Redick. LeBron James would also become a de facto point guard in some ways, but they do not need to overwork him in the final five games with a playoff spot already clinched.
Notably, Bronny has been receiving rotation minutes with Smart out and that trend could continue. The 21-year-old showed some positives but struggled against the Oklahoma City Thunder’s aggressive perimeter defense.
Ultimately, it will be intriguing to see how the Lakers manage these injuries during these final games without their best guards in the picture. If they want to make any noise in the postseason, everyone will need to be healthy and in the lineup.
Austin Reaves takes blame for Lakers struggling against Thunder
Thursday’s matchup against the Thunder was highly anticipated given how well the Lakers played in March. But the game was essentially over a few minutes into it and L.A. trailed by 30-plus in the second quarter.
Frankly, the Lakers did not come out ready to play and did not match Oklahoma City’s defensive intensity. This served as a humbling experience and showed a clear gap between them and the reigning champions. Reaves took ownership of the team struggling as he had lazy turnovers in the first quarter.
“I did a poor job starting the game,” Reaves said on Spectrum SportsNet. “I had a couple turnovers back-to-back and think I might’ve had four in the first quarter. I just gotta do better to give us a better opportunity at the start.”
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