Coming into the postseason, the Los Angeles Lakers did not know if they were going to get Austin Reaves or Luka Doncic back at all after suffering late-season injuries. For Reaves, he suffered a Grade 2 left oblique strain and his initial timeline was four to six weeks.
L.A. took a commanding 3-0 series lead against the Houston Rockets without him, but Reaves still did everything he could to make it back as quickly as possible. He ultimately suited up in Game 5 and Game 6, which was around the four-week mark of his recovery timeline. Reaves was happy to get games under his belt before the second round and also described how hard he worked to get back.
“It was good. Obviously, it would have been much easier if I was able to play a couple real games before [the second round],” Reaves said after their Game 6 win. “But, you know the nature of what happened with the injury at the time, you got to play the cards you’re dealt. Literally, we did literally everything we could possibly do to get myself back in this opportunity. There were days where I left my house at 7:30 in the morning and didn’t get back until 7:30 or later at night. Just going through every possible thing I could go through to help myself get better and we did it as a collective. We huddled up when it first happened, it was basically attack every single day after that.”
Reaves deserves credit for exhausting every option to try and put himself in a position to help his team in the postseason. Having to watch from the sideline during playoff basketball must have been hard, but his dedication put him in a position to help the Lakers close out Houston on the road.
In what felt like a nightmare, L.A. lost its backcourt duo in the same game and had to play an extremely physical Rockets team without them. However, the coaches and players were ready for the challenge and they showed it.
Now that the 27-year-old guard has played two games, he gets a chance to mentally and physically prepare for the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Los Angeles will be heavy underdogs in this series, but at least Reaves is back in the fold to provide a bit more of a fighter’s chance alongside LeBron James.
Austin Reaves discusses offensive struggles in return from oblique injury
While it would be great to get Doncic in the lineup as well, there was never a need to rush either him or Reaves back from their injuries.
Trying to come back in the midst of the playoffs is a challenge for players and the Arkansas native opened up about the offensive struggles he had in Game 5 after missing a month of action.
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