{"id":571438,"date":"2026-01-30T20:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/571438\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T20:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:34:14","slug":"luka-doncic-explains-how-austin-reaves-returning-will-help-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/571438\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107 explains how Austin Reaves returning will help Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lakers have struggled without Austin Reaves. They\u2019ve gone 9-8 during his time away due to his calf strain<\/a>, unable to stack wins against the NBA\u2019s top teams.<\/p>\n

Considering that Reaves is averaging 26.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game, his productivity should help bolster the Lakers\u2019 offense and lighten the load for Luka Don\u010di\u0107, who is leading the NBA in scoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gives us three decision-makers on the court that have great talent,\u201d Luka said. \u201cWe can\u2019t wait to have him back. He\u2019s been working out. I saw him. I think he wants to be back, too. We\u2019re excited for him to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

He mentioned that Reaves could play during LA\u2019s current road trip, and he\u2019s been upgraded to questionable<\/a> for their upcoming game in Washington.<\/p>\n

As Luka has stated, Reaves\u2019 return would provide LA with another playmaker and ballhandler. It would also mean the team could get more minutes with their best trio featuring Reaves, LeBron and Luka. Currently, these three players have played together for just eight games this season, spanning 140 minutes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Luka who is looking forward to Reaves returning, Rui Hachimura is equally as ecstatic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited that he\u2019s coming back,\u201d Hachimura said after LA played Chicago. \u201cFor us, the whole team is going to be healthy, right? Of course, it\u2019s going to be a different rotation again, a different rhythm again but I think we\u2019re going to be ok. Especially with how we\u2019re playing right now, it\u2019ll be perfect for him to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hachimura is right that once Reaves returns, Redick will have his full rotation available. It\u2019s been amazing that the Lakers have been able to survive without Reaves, but they need him to maximize their chances of going on a deep playoff run.<\/p>\n

The good news is his return is imminent. And once he\u2019s back, he can continue his career year and be prepared for the final stretch of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lakers have struggled without Austin Reaves. They\u2019ve gone 9-8 during his time away due to his calf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,771,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-571438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lakers-news","13":"tag-lalakers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleslakers","18":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115985964466094076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}