Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz react to news that Austin Reaves is likely to return to the Los Angeles Lakers’ roster for their Game 5 game against the Houston Rockets. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
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Video Transcript
Los Angeles Lakers star Austin Reaves is optimistic to return to action in game five against the Rockets, that according to Shams.
Remember, he missed, about four weeks with a grade two oblique strain, so it’ll be a game time decision for the third consecutive contest.
If you’re a Lakers fan right now, especially after watching them right on the brink but not quite get it done, there has to be some hope here, understanding, Caroline, that Reaves is gonna come back in.
But it’s been a minute.
He’s gonna need a little bit of time to get back into game action.
Which I think is fine.
You know, the Lakers were able to beat the Rockets in three consecutive games without not just Austin Reaves, but also without Luka Doni.
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Now, I understand that they dropped game four, but I also don’t think that LeBron James is going to score 10 points and turn the ball over eight times in, very many more games.
So even if Austin Reaves needs some ramping up period, even if Austin Reaves still isn’t 100% from the oblique strain, I still think that this is a Lakers team that is more than capable in beating the Houston Rockets, especially with how kind of dejected at times the Houston Rockets have looked, especially at times when it feels like the Houston Rockets struggled to generate offense against a middle-of-the-pack-at-best Lakers defense.
It feels like JJ Redick is gonna put Ema Udoka in a blender, with what JJ Redick has been able to draw up defensively.
So I understand that the Lakers are coming off of a loss, but also even with a less than 100% Austin Reaves, even with an Austin Reaves that’s still kind of trying to get back into the swing of things, they’re better than they were in the first four games of this series, and the Lakers have been the better team for three out of those four games