Austin Reaves is out for the Los Angeles Lakers at Atlanta on Monday night, a day after he scored 43 points while feeling under the weather.
The 9-2 Lakers carry a five-game winning streak into the second night of a back-to-back, minus the guard who drove their last win, but with Luka Doncic back in the expected starting five.
Reaves appeared on the injury report as questionable, then dropped to out because of illness, not an injury. The game tips off at 7 p.m. ET at State Farm Arena and airs on Spectrum SportsNet and other regional networks.
Reaves Played Through Illness for Lakers
Reaves poured in a season-high 43 points on 14 of 27 shooting Sunday, a 51.9% clip, hitting 4 of 6 from 3-point range and all 11 free throws. He added five rebounds and four assists in roughly 37 minutes as the Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons 121-116 for their fifth straight victory.
That total ran 17.7 points above his season average. The Pistons still finished within five points of Los Angeles.
It was his first 40-point game of the season, and it came with Doncic sidelined. Reaves also hit a step-back 3-pointer late in the game.
He did all of it while ill. Reaves had been sick since the team arrived in Detroit on Saturday, according to Dan Woike.
Coach JJ Redick praised Reaves’ decision-making, his aggression and his knack for getting into the paint, according to ESPN. The Lakers are 2-0 without Doncic this season.
Reaves, a 6-foot-5, 197-pound guard from Newark, Arkansas, turned 28 on May 29. He started at Wichita State, then moved to Oklahoma, where he averaged 18.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists in 2020-21 and earned first-team All-Big 12 honors as a senior. He went undrafted in 2021, and the Lakers signed him to a two-way contract.
Since then, he has become a key starter. Reaves averages 16.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.5 assists for his career, and this season he is at 25.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists through 11 games, shooting 50.8% from the field and 41.3% from 3-point range. He is sometimes nicknamed “Hillbilly Kobe.”
Luka Doncic Status for Los Angeles Lakers vs. Hawks
Doncic is reportedly back. The Lakers star is off the injury report and expected to play against the Hawks.
He sat out Sunday with lower-back tightness, his second missed game of the season. Both absences stemmed from back issues during back-to-backs. Doncic sat out the first game of this one and returns for the second, while Reaves played the first and misses the second.
Doncic leads the NBA at 40.1 points per game, a pace that includes a season-high 53-point night.
Reaves’ absence removes 25.3 points per game from the rotation, while Doncic’s return restores 40.1. Together they average 65.4, and Los Angeles has to account for the 25.3 missing from that total on the road.
Reaves is not the only Laker missing. Guard Quentin Grimes is out with a right finger sprain suffered against the Pistons, though X-rays came back negative.
With both guards sidelined, Collin Sexton and Ziaire Williams are expected to pick up extra minutes, with Cameron Carr also a possibility, according to Silver Screen and Roll.
Monday brings a different test, with Doncic in uniform, Reaves out, and a road game one night after Detroit. Los Angeles won in Detroit with Reaves as its lead scorer. In Atlanta, the scoring load shifts back to Doncic.
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