The Los Angeles Lakers have been forced to deal with a ton of injuries early this season, and that continues to be the case as the organization announced that rookie Austin Reaves will miss at least the next two weeks due to a strained left hamstring.
The injury comes at an especially unfortunate time considering how well Reaves had been playing. The Lakers originally signed Reaves to a two-way contract as an undrafted free agent, although he earned a full-time roster spot after a strong summer of workouts with the team.
With all of the other injuries the Lakers have been dealing with, Frank Vogel was forced to put Reaves in his rotation right away and the rookie responded with quality two-way play.
Although Reaves is averaging just 6.1 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 21.3 minutes per game, although of the impact he makes goes beyond the boxscore.
Reaves first hurt his hamstring in the overtime win over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday. Frank Vogel first called him day-to-day as it was not believed to be a serious injury, although with hamstrings you never really know.
It was appear that Reaves has not responded well to treatment so far, which is why they are shutting him down for a couple of weeks to ensure he can get back to 100%.
The Lakers only had 10 healthy players suited up for Wednesday night’s win over the Miami Heat, and now with Reaves expected to miss more time, they will continue to be short-handed moving forward early in the season.
Vogel not making excuses for injuries
Even though the Lakers have been one of the most injured teams in the league to start the season, Vogel is not making excuses.
“It’s just part of this league. Guys get injured all the time and it’s just part of it. You want them to be in there, but if they’re not, you’ve got other guys who can get the job done. No one is feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ve got a lot of guys out, but we’ve got a lot of guys that can play too so we’re coming here to win a game tonight.”
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