{"id":717322,"date":"2026-04-24T23:45:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717322\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:45:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:45:23","slug":"lakers-austin-reaves-not-returning-for-game-3-at-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717322\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers\u2019 Austin Reaves not returning for Game 3 at Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HOUSTON \u2014 The Lakers will have to wait at least one more game before they\u2019re able to get one of their star guards back in the lineup.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/21\/sports\/lakers-luka-doncic-austin-reaves-progressing-from-injuries\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Austin Reaves <\/a>was downgraded from questionable to out for Friday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/24\/sports\/kevin-durant-sidelined-for-game-3-between-lakers-rockets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Game 3 against the Rockets<\/a> at Toyota Center.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39192083\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260331_jko_aj4_008.jpg\" alt=\"NBA player Austin Reaves of the Los Angeles Lakers dribbles a basketball.\" class=\"wp-image-39192083\"  \/>The Lakers\u2019 Austin Reaves won\u2019t play Friday against the host Rockets in Game 3.  Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Reaves has been sidelined since suffering a Grade 2 left oblique strain, an injury that typically comes with a four-to-six-week recovery timeline.<\/p>\n<p>The fifth-year guard, along with fellow star guard Luka Doncic (Grade 2 left hamstring strain), suffered the regular-season-ending injury during the April 2 loss to the Thunder.<\/p>\n<p>He and Doncic missed the final five games of the regular season with their respective injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Reaves had been seen shooting after practices over the last week, including after Thursday\u2019s practice at the team\u2019s practice facility before the team left for Houston.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about Reaves\u2019 progress Thursday, coach JJ Redick said: \u201cThe progression is going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Doncic was also seen going through shooting drills Thursday, with no timetable for his return.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He has a $14.9 million player option for 2026-27 that he\u2019s expected to decline, making him an unrestricted free agent this offseason with the expectation of a significant pay raise.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/18\/sports\/lakers-have-5-major-nba-postseason-questions-here-are-your-answers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Lakers<\/a> entered Friday up 2-0 in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Rockets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 The Lakers will have to wait at least one more game before they\u2019re able to get&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,160,194,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6,56381,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-717322","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-california","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-lakers","13":"tag-lakers","14":"tag-lalakers","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-losangeleslakers","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nba-playoffs-2026","21":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116462349896185358","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717322","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=717322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}