Austin Reaves will miss extended time with the Los Angeles Lakers.
As the Lakers struggled against the Houston Rockets on Christmas Day, the game went from bad to worse, as Reaves left with a suspected calf injury. The veteran guard was recently returning from a multi-game absence.
The Lakers landed an official diagnosis on Friday. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Lakers have described Reaves’ setback as a grade 2 left gastrocnemius strain. He will miss four weeks of action and is set to be evaluated around that time.
While the Lakers won’t have a better idea of the timeline until they reach that four-week mark, the NBA injury analyst Jeff Stotts of ‘In Street Clothes’ revealed the average recovery time for that injury.
“The calf muscle complex is comprised of multiple muscles, including the two-headed gastrocnemius muscle and the soleus,” Stotts reported on the social media platform, X. “The muscles share a conjoined tendon, the Achilles. The average time lost for all Grade 2 calf strains in the NBA is ~40.1 days.”
Austin Reaves Injury News: The calf muscle complex is comprised of multiple muscles, including the two-headed gastrocnemius muscle and the soleus. The muscles share a conjoined tendon, the Achilles. The average time lost for all Grade 2 calf strains in the NBA is ~40.1 days.
— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) December 27, 2025
Barring an unexpected expedited recovery, Reaves is set to miss a month, and probably more.
The 2025-2026 NBA season was shaping up to be the best run of Reaves’ young career so far. In 23 games, he posted an average of 26.6 points, while shooting 50 percent from the field, and hit on 36 percent of his threes. Along with his scoring, Reaves dished out 6.3 assists per game, and came down with 5.2 rebounds per outing.
Prior to his latest setback, Reaves had missed just six games this year. When healthy, the Lakers posted a 15-8 record.
After the Christmas loss against the Rockets, the Lakers dropped to 19-10 on the year. They didn’t move in the standings amid their three-game skid. They still trail the Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Minnesota Timberwolves are neck-and-neck with LA, while the Rockets are creeping up within one game.
The Lakers look forward to getting Reaves back on the court soon, but they certainly know they have to learn to live without him for some time.