The Los Angeles Lakers announced guard Austin Reaves has been diagnosed with a grade 2 left gastrocnemius strain. He will be re-evaluated in approximately four weeks.
The Lakers’ Christmas Day game was a rough night on many levels. Not only were they blown out by the Houston Rockets on their home floor, but Reaves had to leave the game after injuring his calf.
Reaves played just 15 minutes before exiting the game, his second contest back after sitting out the previous three with a different calf issue. Reaves underwent an MRI to determine the severity of the issue and, while he seems to have avoided a major injury, he will still need to miss some time with the team announcing he will be re-evaluated in four weeks.
While this certainly could have been worse for Reaves, he and the Lakers must still be extremely careful in his rehab in order to ensure there is not another setback.
Any soft tissue injury is a concern and the timetable on a return can vary, but calf injuries especially have been popping up across the league and can lead to bigger problems. In particular, there have been multiple players who have pushed to return from a calf strain, only to tear their Achilles. Most notably this was the case for Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who did so in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
That is obviously a worst-case scenario for Reaves, and one that he and the Lakers would like to avoid at all costs so there will no doubt be extreme caution exercised, especially now that there has already been multiple injuries. Reaves is far too important to the Lakers’ short and long-term future to risk any major injury.
It is certainly unfortunate for Reaves, who has been in the midst of a career-year, one that has him on the brink of his first All-Star selection. Even with recent contests lowering his numbers slightly, Reaves is still averaging 26.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists while shooting 50.7% from the field and 36.5% from deep. He is also getting to the free throw line more than eight times per game and shooting an excellent 87.3% from the stripe.
The most important thing for Reaves and the Lakers is that he gets completely healthy and is eventually able to return to the court and continue performing at the high level he has been this season.
Luka Doncic offers his support to Lakers teammate Austin Reaves
Reaves’ Lakers teammate Luka Doncic is no stranger to dealing with a calf strain as he dealt with one last season prior to being traded by the Lakers and the superstar guard offered his support in helping Reaves deal with the injury.
“Yeah, I talked to him. He just said he didn’t know (the severity), he’ll have an MRI I think tomorrow. So just told him if he needs something to help with, I know how it is to go through a calf injury. It’s not fun at all. Just be there to support him. Take your time, calves are dangerous. So take your time,” Doncic said.
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