The Los Angeles Lakers released their injury report for Game 3 against the Houston Rockets and Austin Reaves (left oblique muscle strain) has been upgraded to questionable while Luka Doncic (left hamstring strain) remains out.
For the Rockets, Kevin Durant (left ankle sprain) is questionable. The ankle issue is different than the right knee contusion that kept Durant out of Game 1.
If Durant is able to give it a go though, there is no doubt he will suit up. Meanwhile, Jake LaRavia (right ankle sprain) is not on the injury report as Lakers head coach JJ Redick downplayed the severity of his injury after practice on Thursday.
“He’s doing good,” Redick said. “I’d say he has a very, very, very low-grade, minor minor minor ankle sprain. But the MRI was clean. He’ll be day-to-day.”
The important update here is on Reaves, who has missed the first two games of the series due to his oblique injury. He has been making progress in recent days though, beginning on-court work as he inches his way towards a return.
It remains to be seen if Reaves will be ready to go for Game 3, but even if he isn’t, it’s good to see that he is at least feeling healthy enough to be upgraded to questionable.
The Lakers have jumped out to a 2-0 lead in their first-round series over the Rockets even without Doncic and Reaves and it has taken the efforts of everyone to make that happen. While Reaves has progressed to some on-court work this week, Doncic hasn’t gotten that far just yet and it remains unclear when the Slovenian star will be able to return.
Considering the Lakers have a commanding lead in the series though, they do not have to act desperate and rush their injured stars back. The last thing they need right now is a setback that keeps them out longer, so they should continue to proceed with caution when it comes to the returns of both Reaves and Doncic.
Rui Hachimura has been preparing to play big playoff minutes for Lakers
Some players could be looking at a few more minutes, though that will be difficult for Rui Hachimura who is currently leading the Lakers at 42 minutes per game in the playoffs so far. But Hachimura feels fine in taking on this workload and says he has been preparing all season long for this.
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
