January 30: Doncic has been upgraded to available, while Reaves has been ruled out, head coach JJ Redick told reporters, including Dan Woike of The Athletic (Twitter links).
“[Austin] continues to progress. He hasn’t had any setbacks,” Redick said, per Khobi Price of The California Post (Twitter link). “Yesterday was five weeks from the injury. He’s right on schedule, if not a little bit ahead of schedule. So it’s just him being fully confident in his body. And he continues to get great work on the court.”
January 29: Fifth-year guard Austin Reaves has been upgraded to questionable for Friday’s contest at Washington, the Lakers announced on their injury report (Twitter link via Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times).
Reaves, who is expected to become a free agent this summer, has been out since December 25 after sustaining a Grade 2 left gastrocnemius strain. The gastrocnemius is the largest and most powerful muscle in the calf.
In 23 appearances this season (35.3 minutes per game), Reaves has averaged 26.6 points, 6.3 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.0 steal on .502/.365/.873 shooting. He has missed the Lakers’ last 17 games (23 overall).
Reaves suffered a mild left calf strain on December 8 and returned to action on December 23. He experienced soreness in his calf in his second game back, with an MRI later confirming the second strain. While they seem likely to be connected, Reaves’ initial strain was reportedly to a different part of his calf, which is also comprised of the soleus and plantaris muscles.
Head coach JJ Redick announced a couple weeks ago that Reaves was “progressing well” from his injury and on track to return at some point on the Lakers’ eight-game road trip.
Los Angeles has gone 15-8 with Reaves in the lineup this season, vs. a 13-10 mark without him. The 27-year-old has some of the best on/off figures on the Lakers, though it’s a fairly small sample size since he’s missed half of the team’s games.
Star guard Luka Doncic, who slipped off the sidelines of the Cavaliers’ raised court in Wednesday’s blowout loss in Cleveland, is also questionable Friday due to left ankle soreness.
Not expecting my Wiz kids to win. But I am hoping for a competitive close game. Reaves is out but Doncic available, both being active would be far more than the Wiz can handle at this juncture. Tre Johnson is out for us so we are without an absolute shooter, sometimes not very consistent, but any time his shot goes up it looks good. I’m just hoping the youngsters can make the most of a learning experience.
Sarr is so legit
I think we will be talking about him as atop 30 player in the entire league here soon