Lakers' Austin Reaves Surprisingly Ruled Out of Game vs Bucks

Los Angeles will now be without all three of its best players against Milwaukee.

Mar 19, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA: Denver Nuggets guard Jalen Pickett (24) defends Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) in the second half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The Los Angeles Lakers will now be without its three best players against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night. And, depending on how you feel about Rui Hachimura, L.A. could be seen as missing its four best players, too.

Per Jovan Buha of The Athletic, L.A. has surprisingly ruled out starting guard Austin Reaves with a right ankle sprain, ahead of the team's sixth game in eight nights. He'll join fellow starters Luka Doncic (right ankle sprain), LeBron James (left groin strain), and Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy) on the sidelines for the Lakers.

Lakers’ injury report vs. Milwaukee:
— Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are out.
— Dorian Finney-Smith and Jarred Vanderbilt are doubtful. pic.twitter.com/tGgpS4FeSf

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) March 20, 2025

Power forward/center Maxi Kleber, who along with Markieff Morris was traded to the Lakers as part of L.A.'s blockbuster deal for Doncic last month, continues to rehabilitate from a right foot surgery and remains on the shelf.

Defense-first reserve forwards Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle injury management) and Jarred Vanderbilt (strained right groin) have been listed as doubtful.

L.A.'s brutal scheduling stretch may have impacted head coach JJ Redick's thinking with regards to resting Reaves, Finney-Smith and Vanderbilt, all of whom have been healthy for the Lakers in the team's prior four games during this eight-day slog. Reaves and Vanderbilt have been available for all five bouts. L.A. has gone 3-2 across its last five contests in this stretch.

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It's a solid strategy for Redick. The 43-25 Lakers are currently the Western Conference's No. 3 seed. With just 14 bouts left to play, L.A. needs to think bigger picture and prepare for what it hopes will be a deep playoff run in Redick's first season as a head coach.

Taking a schedule loss now to be healthy later makes sense, from that perspective.

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Reaves has been on an absolute tear in this brutal stretch. The 6-foot-5 Oklahoma product is averaging 29.0 points on .525/.404/.952 shooting splits, 7.2 assists, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.0 steals, while playing a whopping 37.2 minutes a night.

On the year, the 26-year-old (who is older than Luka Doncic despite playing in just his fourth NBA season) is logging career-best averages of 19.6 points on .447/.364/.874 shooting splits, 6.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game.

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