Austin Reaves Injury Update, Latest News on Lakers Star's Calf, Timeline to Return

The Los Angeles Lakers will reportedly be missing Austin Reaves to a calf injury for at least the next month.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported Friday that Reaves will be reevaluated in four weeks after suffering a "grade 2 left gastrocnemius strain."

The gastrocnemius is a muscle in the calf.

Reaves exited the Lakers' Christmas Day loss to the Houston Rockets on Thursday with what the team described at the time as left calf soreness.

The extent of the injury was identified after Reaves underwent an MRI on Friday, according to The Athletic's Dan Woike.

The guard had recently returned from missing three games between Dec. 10 and Dec. 23 due to what the Lakers called a "mild left calf strain."

Reaves made his return by coming off the bench and playing 22 minutes in Tuesday's loss at the Phoenix Suns.

He started without a minutes restriction in Thursday's game against the Rockets, although Redick said ahead of the game the team would "monitor" Reaves' status, per Silver Screen and Roll's Edwin Garcia.

Woike described Reaves' latest injury as "a separate strain" from his previous issue, which involved a smaller muscle in the calf.

Sitting out four weeks will put Reaves on track to miss at least 14 games for the Lakers, who fell to 19-10 and No. 4 in the Western Conference with Thursday's loss.

Only the NBA's leading scorer, Luka Dončić, has been more productive for the Lakers than Reaves so far this season.

While taking on a larger workload in stretches without Dončić and LeBron James early this season, Reaves has averaged 26.6 points while shooting 50.7 percent from the field and 36.5 percent from deep through 23 games.

Losing him for a month will put significant pressure on both Dončić and James to carry the Lakers' offensive workload going forward.

Marcus Smart, who started the second half against the Rockets on Christmas Day, could potentially see more playing time as the Lakers shuffle their backcourt in order to make up for Reaves' absence.