The one thing you can’t question about Austin Reaves is his desire to play.
He played in all 82 games during the 2023-24 NBA season, and last year, he was still competing against the Wolves in the playoffs despite a big toe sprain.
This season, after suffering a Grade 2 oblique strain, it was expected that he would be out for 4-6 weeks. However, he returned even sooner and played in the first round against the Rockets, helping LA win the series.
On Monday morning, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN published
an article revealing that the Lakers didn’t expect Reaves to return so quickly, and that it was only possible because of his around-the-clock efforts.
The Lakers initially assumed he would be out until the conference finals, team sources told ESPN, but Reaves was determined to get back for at least some of the Lakers’ playoff run.
“I left my house every day around 7:30 in the morning to get treatment and didn’t come home until about 8 at night,” Reaves told ESPN. “I was going crazy trying to get back. … I was in that hyperbaric chamber all the time.”
Kudos to Reaves for doing everything possible to play in the postseason. Given the severity of his injury, no one was ever going to question how long he took to return, so his putting in 12-hour days to get back is impressive and admirable.
Thanks to his efforts, he started in Game 5 against the Rockets and helped the Lakers advance to the second round, a feat that not many experts thought possible.
Against the Thunder, he’s continued playing a high number of minutes and has done everything possible to help the Lakers win. In Game 2, he scored a playoff career-high 31 points.
Even the Lakers didn’t think Reaves would return so quickly, but that’s the thing about Austin: just when you think he can’t impress you more, he finds a way to exceed your expectations.
Reaves is a franchise player for the Lakers, and his recovery work is another example of why. He does everything possible to be a top performer and will set a standard of effort that the rest of the team will have to try to match.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
