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The Los Angeles Lakers have gotten healthy over the past few days after getting Austin Reaves back from a long injury absence, and he's already shown that he was missed. Reaves is still on a minutes restriction, but against the Philadelphia 76ers , where Luka Doncic had to leave early because of an injury, they needed all 25 minutes from him.
Reaves finished the game with 35 points, and the Lakers were able to walk away with the win. It's hard to know if the Lakers would have pulled it out if Reaves was there, but they don't have to play the "what if" game. He came in, and he delivered when the team needed him the most.
After the game, Reaves spoke about his injury absence and how he was still doing what he could to stay in shape to come back and do things as he did against the 76ers.
"When you're out with an injury, I don't think it's everyone thinks it is. It's not your sitting around doing nothing," Reaves said. "I think you do more when you're hurt than when you're playing because you're trying to stay conditioned, you're trying to stay somewhat in rhythm. It's tough, you wake up every single day having to go to work knowing that you can't do the best part of your work. But you have to do that stuff, and that stuff keeps you in much rhythm as you can."
It looks like Reaves can be taken off his minutes restriction sooner rather than later, but the Lakers will probably still play it cautiously with him for the next couple of games.
It's uncertain the severity of Doncic's injury, and that can also play a role in Reaves and his minutes moving forward. If he does have to miss time, it wouldn't be a surprise if he were inserted in the starting lineup.
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