The Los Angeles Lakers got some good news prior to Game 5 against the Houston Rockets as it was announced that Austin Reaves had been cleared and would return for the first time in nearly a month from his left oblique strain. Reaves had been enjoying an excellent season prior to going down with the injury and the Lakers greatly missed having him on the floor.
Reaves had his struggles as is to be expected in his first game back in nearly a month. He shot just 4-of-16 from the field, though he was able to get to the foul line like normal, hitting 12-of-13 from the line and finishing with 22 points and six assists. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to help the Lakers to a victory as they fell 99-93 at home. On the positive side for the guard, however, was that he physically felt alright after the game.
“Felt good,” Reaves said following the contest. “It was good to be back out there. Overall, felt really good.”
Reaves not doing anything to tweak or re-injure his oblique is a positive and he did not get eased back into things as he played 34 minutes in his first game back. But that surely didn’t bother Reaves as there is no place he’d rather be than on the basketball court, doing everything possible to make it back.
“Just to go back three weeks and six days, I think tomorrow will be four weeks, it’s been a grind,” he admitted. “I’ve been running around Los Angeles doing everything I possibly can do to get back to this moment. And we’ve done it. It feels good. I love playing basketball. It’s my happy place. It was nice to get back out there. Obviously wish I played a little better, wish I made a couple more shots. But at the end of the day, I had fun out there and it was good to compete.”
Of course, Reaves being the competitor that he is, was disappointed in the outcome and not being able to end this series against the Rockets at home. But that didn’t take away from the feeling he got when running on the court for the first time in weeks.
“As I ran out tonight, for the first time in a long time, I got a really good feeling. That chills feeling, with the atmosphere, the crowd,” Reaves said. “And I think that’s just because when something you love is taken away from you for four weeks with an injury, and then you get, like I said, dumped in the fire in a game like this, I can say I wouldn’t want it any other way, but I kinda do. But yeah, it was a lot of fun, the fans were great. Obviously we didn’t end it tonight on our home court, but we’ll have another opportunity Friday to go get it done.”
The Lakers as a whole will have to be better if they want to avoid a Game 7, but the fact that he will be on the court contributing in Game 6 is the biggest deal for Reaves.
Austin Reaves was ‘miserable’ missing playoff games
Reaves is a competitor, so he naturally didn’t enjoy watching playoff games from the sidelines even though the Lakers won three of the first four games against the Rockets.
“I’ve been pretty miserable,” the guard admitted. “Just not having somewhat of a control on a game, just sitting over there with not no hope in the game, but like no hope that I can affect the game. Like obviously I can talk and try to lead from being over there, but not really being on the court sucks. And yeah, I mean I think we’ve seen in the past when I get injured, I do everything I can to get back as soon as I can with still being safe at the same time.”
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
