The Los Angeles Lakers are on the tail end of a four-game road trip that concludes on Friday against the Atlanta Hawks. Although the Lakers still have one more game remaining, the road trip ended early for Austin Reaves who has been dealing with an injury.
Austin Reaves suffered a pelvic injury after taking a hard fall during the Lakers' loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder last week, and hasn't been able to play during this road trip. Reaves left the trip early and returned to Los Angeles for additional treatment, as per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Reaves has appeared on the Lakers' injury report as questionable before each game of the trip, and was ultimately downgraded to out. In the Thunder game, Reaves was able to shoot his free-throws after the fall, before needing to come out of the game.
He did not start the second half, although he did check back into the game albeit being limited. With D'Angelo Russell moving to the bench, Reaves has taken over full-time starting point guard duties. In his absence, Russell has moved back into the starting lineup for the time being, although Gabe Vincent was moved into the starting lineup for the Hawks game.
In addition to Reaves, the Lakers have been with a decimated frontcourt with the trio of Jaxson Hayes, Jarred Vanderbilt and Christian Wood all sidelined. LeBron James was a game time decision against the Hawks with a foot issue, but was cleared to play.
With Reaves' absence, the Lakers are missing his 16.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.1 steals. He's been shooting 44 percent from the field, 35.5 percent shooting from the three-point line and 77.4 percent from the free-throw line.
The fourth-year guard has been one of the Lakers' biggest success stories over the past couple of seasons. He went undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft and was initially signed to a two-way contract as an undrafted free agent. Reaves was converted to a standard contract before the start of the 2021-22 season and re-signed with the team on a longer term contract in the 2023 offseason.
