Lakers star guard Austin Reaves returns in Game 5 vs. Rockets

After being sidelined for nearly four weeks because of an oblique injury, Lakers star guard Austin Reaves made his long-awaited return to the court in Game 5 against the Rockets. 

The Lakers upgraded Reaves from questionable to available 45 minutes before tipoff on Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena, making Reaves eligible to make his playoffs debut after missing the first four games of the best-of-seven first round playoff series. 

Reaves was sidelined for 27 days because of the Grade 2 left oblique strain he suffered during the April 2 loss to the Thunder, returning earlier than the 4-6 week recovery timeline that typically comes with the injury.

He was listed as questionable for Friday’s Game 3 win and Sunday’s Game 4 loss before being downgraded to out for both games.

During his first media availability since suffering on Tuesday, Reaves responded, “just how my body feels,” when asked what would determine whether he played on Wednesday. 

Cleary, he feels good enough and confident in his body, which coach JJ Redick emphasized was the most important

“I said, ‘let’s take the context of the series out of it’,” Redick said pregame on Wednesday. “‘Because if you’re not confident, you shouldn’t play. If you are confident, you should play.’ It’s that simple.”

The Lakers had been without Reaves and fellow star guard Luka Doncic (left hamstring strain) since both suffered regular season-ending injuries on April 2.

He and Doncic missed the final five games of the regular season with their respective injuries, with the Lakers going 3-2 in those games.

“I’ve been pretty miserable,” Reaves said on Tuesday. “Just not having somewhat of a control on a game, just sitting over there with…no hope that I can affect the game. 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 while still being safe at the same time.”

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The Lakers entered Wednesday up 3-1 in the first round series over the Rockets. 

“Obviously, our confidence doesn’t waver as a team,” Reaves said. “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 has a $14.9 million player option for 2026-27 that he’s expected to decline, making him an unrestricted free agent this offseason with the expectation of a significant pay raise.

“We just want Austin to be Austin,” Redick said pregame of Reaves. “That’s the biggest thing. As the series has gone on, their pressure and physicality have just increased every game, and ball handling has been important for us all series, so he would certainly help there.”