Austin Reaves, Lakers, Austin Reaves return
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Austin Reaves #15 of the Los Angeles Lakers dribbles during a 133-121 Lakers win over the New Orleans Pelicans at Crypto.com Arena on November 30, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Star guard Austin Reaves has yet to be cleared to return to the Los Angeles Lakers lineup and won’t take the court for Monday night’s away contest against the Chicago Bulls.
However, there’s a realistic possibility that Reaves would be back for Wednesday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
Reaves, sidelined with a grade 2 calf strain since the Christmas Day loss to the Houston Rockets, has reportedly progressed enough in his recovery to engage in full-contact work in practice. He took part in Friday’s shootaround ahead of Saturday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks, which signalled his imminent return.
Lakers Have Missed Austin Reaves
The Lakers have dearly missed Reaves, the team’s second-leading scorer, over the past month or so. JJ Redick’s team has gone 8-7 in the last 15 games without Reaves after starting the season with a 19-10 record through Christmas Day.
During this timeframe, the Lakers have seen their offensive rating plummet to 114.6, which ranks 13th in the league, a stark contrast to their sixth-ranked offensive rating of 117.5 before the Austin Reaves injury.
The Lakers never really got to see their Big 3 of Reaves, Luka Doncic and LeBron James play together for an extended stretch before Reaves’ injury, with either James missing the first 14 games of the season and Doncic missing a bunch of games with calf issues. As such, Los Angeles may finally get to unleash their three offensive weapons at the same time and possibly take some momentum into the next month’s All-Star break.
Hyped For Austin Reaves Return
Speaking of the All-Star break, Reaves was on track to make his first All-Star Team before his injury, averaging career-highs in points (26.6 points), assists (6.3), rebounds (5.2), 3PM (2.7) and FG% (.507). However, it seems unlikely that he’d make the cut after missing over a month’s action, given that the All-Star reserves are selected by the 30 NBA head coaches, who could choose to reward other, more available players.
One Lakers player who is excited for Reaves’ return is Rui Hachimura, who has embraced a new bench role to make way for Jake LaRavia’s ascension as a starter.
“I forgot that he was even on the team for a while actually, I think since Christmas? We’re so happy for him to be back,” Hachimura said of Reaves, via LakersNation.
“Obviously I want him to take time and go easy on his calf, because I just had the same thing, so you gotta be careful with that. But we had that great start of 20 games, and he was the biggest part of it. We needed to hold things back. He can create offense and everything and push the ball, so we’re excited for him to be back.”
If Reaves is not back for Wednesday’s contest, the next target return date would be Friday’s game against the Washington Wizards. The Lakers will conclude their annual “Grammy Road Trip” with stops against the New York Knicks on Feb. 1 and the Brooklyn Nets on Feb. 3 before returning home.