Reaves looked a bit off in the Lakers loss.
The Los Angeles Lakers got Austin Reaves back on the floor Wednesday night, but it wasn't enough.
Houston walked into Crypto.com Arena and came away with a 99-93 win, cutting the series deficit to 3-2 and forcing a Game 6 back in Texas on Friday.
Reaves had been out since April 2 with a Grade 2 oblique strain, missing the final five regular season games and all four previous playoff contests.
He came off the bench and played 34 minutes, finishing with 22 points, six assists and four rebounds.
Those numbers sound fine until the shooting splits come into focus.
He shot just 4-for-16 from the field and 2-for-8 from three-point range, missing looks he would normally bury without hesitation.
After the loss, Reaves didn't try to sugarcoat it.
"I missed a lot of easy looks, and we didn't shoot it great as a team," Reaves said. "We'll watch film, try to get better and try to win a game Friday."
Ugly Shooting
The Lakers as a whole shot 42.1% from the field and went just 7-for-27 from three, a miserable 25.9% clip that has become a pattern over the last two games.
In their first three wins of the series, Los Angeles was connecting on 46.1% of their threes.
Over the last two losses, that number has cratered to 24.5%.
LeBron James turned in 25 points and seven assists but went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc, while Luke Kennard finished with just one point on 0-for-4 shooting after dropping 64 combined in the first three games.
Deandre Ayton had one of his strongest performances as a Laker with 18 points and 17 rebounds, but even that wasn't enough to offset the cold shooting everywhere else.
Houston Kept Fighting
The Rockets, who went 52-30 during the regular season as the fifth seed in the West, have now won two straight elimination games without Kevin Durant, who remains out with an ankle injury.
Jabari Smith Jr. led Houston with 22 points and seven boards on Wednesday, while Tari Eason added 18 and Amen Thompson chipped in 15.
Alperen Sengun did a bit of everything with 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, and the Rockets outscored the Lakers 30-19 in the second quarter to flip a seven-point deficit into a halftime lead.
The fourth-seeded Lakers, who finished 53-29 in the regular season and have been playing without All-Star Luka Doncic since the same April 2 game that sidelined Reaves, still hold the 3-2 series advantage.
No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series.
But the longer this series goes, the more pressure builds on a Los Angeles team that looked like it had this wrapped up just a few days ago.
Game 6 tips off Friday night in Houston.