The Los Angeles Lakers announced on Saturday that Austin Reaves will miss the rest of the regular season with a Grade 2 oblique strain.
The news is a devastating blow to a Lakers team that’s already playing the remainder of the regular season without injured All-Star and MVP candidate Luka Dončić, who’s sidelined with a Grade 2 hamstring strain.
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The Lakers will now play the rest of the regular season without their top two scorers. They have five games remaining on their schedule. Dončić is reportedly out indefinitely, and his status for a first-round playoff series is unclear.
Per ESPN’s Shams Charania, Reaves is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with his injury, projecting to sideline him for any first-round playoff series and possibly beyond that if the Lakers advance out of the first round. The playoffs are scheduled to start on April 18.
Reaves sustained the injury during Thursday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the same game in which Dončić was injured.
The Lakers were previously waiting results of an MRI exam before determining Reaves’ status. According to head coach JJ Redick, a second MRI was necessary because the Dallas Mavericks scanned the wrong area when they performed imaging on Reaves. The Lakers are in Dallas for a game against the Mavericks on Sunday.
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The Lakers entered Saturday in third place in the West at 50-27, one game ahead of the Denver Nuggets, two games ahead of the Houston Rockets and four games ahead of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The top four teams in the conference will have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Reaves, 27, is in the midst of a career-best season. He’s averaging 23.3 points, 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game while shooting 49% from the field and 36% from 3. He’s become a go-to scoring option on a roster that features Dončić and LeBron James. The Lakers will be at a significant disadvantage as long as he and Dončić remain out.