Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves suffered a terrifying fall late in the second quarter of his team’s matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night. Fortunately, he was able to return to the game in the second half and did not appear to be significantly hampered.
With just over three and a half minutes left in the first half, Reaves faked a handoff with teammate Max Christie, completely fooling the Thunder. He had a clear lane to the rim and tried to get there ahead of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Isaiah Hartenstein, who were desperately trying to recover on the weak side. The three of them converged on the basket at the same time, and the force of the collision sent Reaves to the ground, where he landed directly on his back.
After being treated by the Lakers’ medical staff, Reaves briefly remained in the game. He made both of his free throws and attempted a 3-pointer on the next possession, but he wasn’t moving well. On the next dead ball, he left the game and immediately headed to the locker room.
It certainly looked like Reaves was done for the night, especially when he didn’t come out of the locker room to start the second half. However, he returned to the bench midway through the third quarter and checked in with 6:17 left in the frame.
Reaves has taken another step forward this season and entered Friday averaging a career-high 17.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game on 37% shooting from behind the arc. He is third on the team in scoring behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis and only behind James in assists. He has also been an iron man for the Lakers, playing in all 18 games so far this season after playing in all 82 last year.
Losing him for any period of time would have been bad news for the Lakers, who have been on a roller coaster ride through the first five weeks of the season.
