The Los Angeles Lakers released an updated injury report for Saturday night’s matchup against the Orlando Magic and Austin Reaves has been upgraded to available. Leading up to this contest, Reaves was listed as questionable due to left hip soreness.
Los Angeles is coming off a challenging back-to-back against the Houston Rockets and Miami Heat, where the Big 3 of Reaves, Luka Doncic and LeBron James played heavy minutes in both contests despite being banged up. Particularly for Reaves, he has had plenty of hard falls lately and has been competing at a high level defensively.
With their eight-game winning streak on the line, L.A. wants to keep these good times rolling as they look to solidify their standing as the third seed. At this stage of the regular season, players are dealing with some level of ailments and it boils down to playing through them.
Notably, Reaves has been playing through a wrist injury as his right wrist has been taped for the past handful of games. It is also worth noting that he was the last star to be upgraded to play against Miami, but he said he could not sit out with Doncic and James suiting up as the Lakers are clearly building a winning culture where guys want to play through ailments.
Perhaps that contributed to the Arkansas native suiting up against the Magic, but hopefully he is not risking further injury as the Lakers look to keep their win streak going. Orlando will certainly be eager to end their own three-game losing streak after getting blown out by the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday.
The Magic present issues for the Lakers with their size, specifically with Anthony Black, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero and Jonathan Isaac. But unfortunately for them, Wagner, Black and Isaac are all out, which should alleviate a bit of defensive pressure for L.A.
An opportunity to win nine straight is certainly on the table while also giving a chance for Reaves to get back on track offensively. After battling a physical Houston team twice in three nights along with the Heat on a back-to-back, his legs were gone on his jumpshot.
Getting him back on track would help the Lakers tremendously, but hopefully these nagging injuries do not materialize into a bigger issue down the stretch.
Austin Reaves praises LeBron James’ willingness to sacrifice
Everyone has had to make sacrifices for the Lakers to start gelling as a team, but perhaps no one more than James, whose usage rate is essentially the lowest of his career. Whatever the team is currently doing is working though and Reaves recently praised James for being willing to do what is best for the team.
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