Lakers Injury Report: Austin Reaves Questionable Vs. Grizzlies

The Los Angeles Lakers listed Austin Reaves as questionable for Saturday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies due to a right ankle sprain. Everyone else is available outside of Maxi Kleber, who continues to recovery from foot surgery.

Reaves has been dealing with ankle issues for a little while now and has tweaked it a couple of times on the Lakers’ road trip. That includes during the third quarter of Thursday night’s loss to the Chicago Bulls when Reaves rolled the right ankle pretty bad.

He was in obvious pain but decided to stay in the game and tough it out. He was exceptional for L.A. down the stretch and almost saved them on what should’ve been a game-winning layup if not for a half-court buzzer-beater by Josh Giddey to complete a total collapse for the Lakers.

Reaves was one of the only positives from that game, leading the Lakers with 30 points on 10-of-17 shooting. He easily could have been ruled out with the ankle sprain he is now dealing with, but he explained why he wanted to stay in there to finish it out.

“Just want to be there for my teammates,” Reaves said after the loss. “It’s not the first time I’ve rolled my ankle and probably won’t be the last. I like playing. I like being in the game to kind of control the game and if I sit out and I can’t play then I’m not able to control what I want to. So just try to forget about it and focus on trying to win.”

The Lakers’ game against the Grizzlies has massive standings implications heading into the home stretch of the regular season, so Reaves will surely do whatever he can to be available for his teammates.

Austin Reaves appreciates trust from LeBron James and Luka Doncic

As mentioned, when the game was on the line, Reaves came through for the Lakers with a go-ahead layup before Josh Giddey won it for the Bulls.

Considering he is on a team with LeBron James and Luka Doncic, Reaves appreciated his co-stars trusting him to take the final shot in a crucial spot.

“A lot. Like you said, LeBron is arguably the greatest player ever and Luka is gonna go down as one of the best players to ever play as well. I’ve said it many times, I barely got my foot in the league and just trying to take advantage of all the opportunities. They trusted me in that moment and I just wanted to try to go be successful for them.”