The Los Angeles Lakers announced that guard Austin Reaves (left oblique muscle strain) has been upgraded to available for Game 5 against the Houston Rockets.

Reaves was listed as questionable for both Games 3 and 4 before ultimately being ruled out after warming up. He was again questionable for Game 5, but there was more optimism this time that he would be able to suit up and now that will officially be the case.

It has been nearly four weeks since Reaves suffered the injury, and he explained that the organization wanted him to be fully recovered and comfortable enough to play before returning.

“That’s what we sat down [and talked about] at the start of it and JJ was like you have to be comfortable with your body and what you can do to go out there and help us be successful,” he said after practice on Tuesday. “I want to get out there as fast as I can. But like I said, I feel good and trending in the right direction. Can’t wait to wake up tomorrow and attack another day.”

With Reaves missing so much time, he likely will be on some sort of minutes restriction in his return to action. The Lakers have struggled taking care of the ball and creating offense against a tough Rockets defense though, so even if Reaves is only able to play spot minutes off the bench, he should provide a huge boost for his team.

The Lakers are hoping to close out the Rockets on Wednesday night in Game 5 to avoid having to go back to Houston for Game 6 on Friday. If they are able to do so, that would give Reaves some extra time to rest before opening up their second-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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 have been taking care of business 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.