![\"Austin](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1827312452-e1757371852682.jpg\")
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Austin Reaves #15 of the Los Angeles Lakers smiles during pregame warmup against the Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves<\/a> has been off to the side waiting patiently as his Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> have been busy winning playoff games.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Lakers are rolling. Check that. They are absolutely cruising \u2014 kind of like a late-night drive with no traffic, no noise, just open road and no reason to hit the brakes.<\/p>\n L.A. is currently up 2-0 on the Houston Rockets<\/a> in the first round of the playoffs. The series now, however, is changing cities as it is now the Lakers\u2019 turn to be the road team.<\/p>\n Can they continue riding in the driver\u2019s seat? They surely have a chance. Especially if they get their second-best scorer back in the lineup.<\/p>\n Lakers fans, buckle up, some much-awaited news may finally be here.\u00a0<\/p>\n Austin Reaves Expected to Suit Up for Tonight\u2019s Game 3<\/p>\n You read that right.<\/p>\n Reaves, 27, incurred a Grade 2 oblique strain just 22 days ago. While the team didn\u2019t announce an estimated return timeline \u2014 head coach JJ Redick said multiple times Reaves, and Luka Doncic<\/a>, would be out \u201cindefinitely\u201d \u2014 several credible sources floated a 4-6 week window.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reaves is just at the start of the third week, so either the timeline those sources gave was off or Reaves\u2019 injury was less severe than previously understood.\u00a0<\/p>\n LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA \u2013 APRIL 12: Marcus Smart #36, Austin Reaves #15 and Luke Kennard #10 of the Los Angeles Lakers watch from the bench during the first half against the Utah Jazz<\/a> at Crypto.com Arena on April 12, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n The Lakers are up 2-0, so it\u2019s not like they are absolutely desperate to regain the services of Doncic or Reaves. They\u2019d still want their stars back sooner than later to get some time to reingratiate them before a tougher series ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n It seems help is here at last.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a recent episode of the Hoop Collective podcast, a show featuring ESPN senior writers Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon and Brian Windhorst, Bontemps said he expects Reaves to return<\/a> from injury in tonight\u2019s Game 3 in Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAustin Reaves is gonna play Friday barring some kind of setback,\u201d Bontemps said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Interjected MacMahon: \u201cOnce they\u2019re upgraded to questionable and they\u2019ve been ramping up, it\u2019s pretty rare to see a guy not be able to go, unless there\u2019s some sort of road block right at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n Houston on the Verge of Going Down 0-3<\/p>\n If Reaves returns tonight, that spells major trouble for the already troubled Rockets.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reaves began his return-to-play process early this week in Lakers practice. Videos surfaced showing Reaves engaging in practice activities and working with trainers. It was the first sign Reaves\u2019 return was around the corner. Now he could return to action as soon as tonight.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Lakers will likely see a Houston team playing with desperation tonight. The Rockets know if they lose tonight, their season is effectively over. No team in NBA<\/a> history has overcome an 0-3 deficit. Only four teams have even forced a Game 7 after trailing by three games.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Rockets are still dealing with injury concerns over Kevin Durant<\/a>, who was listed on the injury report with an ankle sprain \u2014 not for the knee issue he encountered before Game 1 last week.<\/p>\n It\u2019ll be interesting to see if Reaves indeed suits up tonight and to what capacity the Lakers play him.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAdel Ahmad<\/a> Adel is a writer with over five years of experience covering the NBA. His work has appeared on various media platforms, both national and local. More about Adel Ahmad<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Austin Reaves #15 of the Los Angeles Lakers smiles during pregame warmup against the Oklahoma City Thunder.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-717413","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-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116462990612632926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717413","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=717413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Los](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777084088_661_GettyImages-2271064195-e1776869833730.jpg\")
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