The Los Angeles Lakers are trending in the right direction with regard to availability, as Austin Reaves made his way back into the lineup last night in the team’s 121-111 win over the Charlotte Hornets.

Reaves had not played since the Lakers’ win over the Miami Heat back on Nov. 2, having missed three games in a row with a groin issue. 

Following Los Angeles’ win over Charlotte, Reaves gave an update on his health, expressing that he originally wanted to be back in action when the team played the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 8, which started the Lakers’ five-contest road trip.

Khobi Price (@khobi_price) on X Austin Reaves breaks down his process of returning to the floor tonight in Charlotte after sitting out three games because of a groin injury

“I don’t like missing games,” Reaves said in the postgame press conference. “I really wanted to play in Atlanta, but I think they might have thought it was just a little too early, so it was good to get back [tonight]. I felt great.”

Reaves also provided some insight on the first time he noticed anything felt wrong with regard to a potential injury, which he said was during that Nov. 2 game against the Heat. 

“Just felt a little something kind of early in [the Miami] game, but obviously wanted to finish the game and re-evaluate after,” Reaves said. “And that was a good win for us against Miami, they had been playing good basketball, and just wanted to finish that one and then see what was going on. And went through all the things that we had to go through, treated it basically morning, evening, just try to get back.”

Now that the Lakers do have Reaves back, they can lean more consistently on their budding one-two punch made up of him and Luka Dončić, which the duo has shown flashes of when they’ve both been available this season. 

Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) on X Luka and Austin had a half-court competition... IN-GAME

Dončić is averaging 37.1 points per game, and Reaves is averaging 30.3 points per game. They’ve only played seven and eight games, respectively, but when they have shared the floor, it has worked well for Los Angeles, who now sits at 8-3 heading into a difficult matchup against a Western Conference behemoth in the Oklahoma City Thunder. 

The Thunder sit atop the conference with a 10-1 record, and don’t appear to be showing any signs of slipping away from the championship pedigree they built this past June when they won the 2025 NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers. 

The Lakers’ game against the Thunder will tip off at 9:30 p.m. EST on Nov. 12, as two contenders in the West will clash for the first time this season.