One of the Lakers’ top scorers will be out at least the next few weeks.
Austin Reaves was diagnosed with a grade 2 left gastrocnemius strain on Friday, according to multiple reports. He is expected to miss at least four weeks with the calf injury and will be reevaluated after that point.
Reaves left the Lakers’ 119-96 loss to the Rockets on Christmas early and was ruled out at halftime with what was initially called a sore left calf. He scored 12 points before being replaced by Marcus Smart.
“Austin clearly felt something,” Lakers coach JJ Redick told reporters after the loss. “We did our normal halftime, and then as we were walking out of the locker room, [Lakers director of player performance and health] Dr. [LeRoy] Sims told me he was out.”
The 27-year-old missed time earlier this month with a grade 1 strain in what the Lakers had called a “mild” injury.
Reaves is in the middle of what is his best season to date, averaging career highs in points (26.6), assists (6.3) and rebounds (5.2).
The Lakers next play Sunday against the Kings and will look to turn things around after losing three games in a row.
After the loss to Houston Thursday night, Redick took his team to task for being “terrible.”
“Yeah, two words of the day were effort and execution. When we’ve done both those things at a high level, we’ve been a good basketball team. When we haven’t, we’re a terrible basketball team,” Redick said when asked what went wrong Thursday.
“And tonight, we were a terrible basketball team, and it started legitimately right away.”
If they’re going to improve on their 19-10 record, they’ll have to do it without Reaves for now.
