After being listed as questionable before being ruled out for the Lakers’ last two playoff games against the Rockets , there’s heightened optimism that star guard Austin Reaves will make his return to the court in Game 5.
Reaves will be a gametime decision for Wednesday’s matchup at Crypto.com Arena, with the Lakers leading 3-1 in the best-of-seven first round series after dropping Sunday’s Game 4 in Houston .
He’s been sidelined since suffering a left oblique strain during the April 2 loss to the Thunder , which typically comes with a 4-6 week recovery timeline.
Reaves had his first media availability since suffering the oblique injury on Tuesday at the Lakers’ practice facility – which is typically a good sign for a player’s game availability moving forward.
“I feel good,” Reaves said. “As far as what we’re doing, we’re in a good spot. 3-1 back [at] home, so we’ve got a good opportunity [on Wednesday]. So we’ll see.”
When asked what would determine whether he plays in Game 5 or looks to return later, Reaves responded, “just how my body feels.”
Before Game 4, coach JJ Redick spoke about the importance of a player feeling confidence in their body before returning to the court, and how “that’s always the final hurdle coming back from an injury, the psychological component of it.”
Reaves echoed Redick on Tuesday.
“That’s what we said at first,” Reaves said. “And JJ specifically was like, ‘you have to be comfortable with your body and what you can do to go out there and help us be successful.’ And I want to get back out there as fast as I can. But like I said, I feel good and trending in the right direction and can’t wait to wake up [on Wednesday] and attack another day.”
Wednesday marks just one day shy of four weeks since the star guard suffered the injury.
When asked what he’s done to give himself an opportunity to play, Reaves responded “I’ve done everything. I’ve done a lot.”
He added: “I’ve done everything I could do to be in good condition, be in somewhat of a rhythm as I can to go out there and when I’m able to get on the court to try to make it as seamless as possible. We’ve done everything on court, off court. Experienced a lot of cool things through this process, so it’s fun.”
The Lakers have been without Reaves and fellow star guard Luka Doncic (left hamstring) since both suffered their injuries against the Thunder .
Doncic remains sidelined indefinitely, progressing from standstill drills to “increased movement” over the last few days, according to Redick.
Reaves suffered his injury during the first quarter of the loss to the Thunder after he “overextended a little bit” for a rebound.
He stayed in the game despite the discomfort, going back to the locker room after subbing out before returning in the second quarter, before eventually subbing out for the remainder of the blowout loss in the third.
By April 3, the Lakers found out they’d be without Doncic for at least the remainder of the regular season. One day later, Reaves was diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique strain.
The Lakers had won 16 of 18 games before the loss to the Thunder.
“I kinda had a feeling,” Reaves responded when asked about processing the injury. “Like I said, I got a high pain tolerance. When something bothers me, it’s usually something wrong. So super frustrated, obviously. Just got the Luka news, we’re playing well as a team, so just super frustrated.
“But obviously, our confidence doesn’t waver as a team. Basically the message from that day forward was, ‘we’re going to do everything as a team, that they were going to do everything as a team to give us an opportunity to come back and play.’ And they’ve done exactly what they said.”
Reaves averaged a career-high 23.3 points to go with 5.5 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals in a career-low 51 regular-season games after also missing significant time in December and January because of a calf strain.
He said he’s been “pretty miserable” having to watch the Lakers from the sidelines while he worked his way back.
“Just not having somewhat of a control on a game, just sitting over there with not no hope in the game – no hope that I can affect the game,” Reaves added. “Obviously I can talk and try to lead from being over there, but not really being on the court sucks. 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.”
The Lakers went 3-2 in the final five games of the regular season without Doncic and Reaves before jumping out to a 3-1 series lead over the Rockets, who’ve been without star forward and leading scorer Kevin Durant in three of the first four games of the series.
“It’s been a lot of fun, just seeing the determination, the togetherness and just the joy of them playing basketball together,” Reaves said. “Competing every single possession, it’s been a lot of fun. Me and Luka talk about it every time we’re watching, just how hard we’re playing, the attention to detail and like I said the togetherness.”
