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Lakers coach JJ Redick says Austin Reaves needs to be ‘huge’ after shaking off rust

May 2, 2026

HOUSTON — Austin Reaves didn’t have the brightest start in his return to the court on Wednesday night.

Lakers coach JJ Redick and Reaves both said, in retrospect, that the guard missed some open looks on his way to 22 points on 4-for-16 shooting in the 99-93 loss to the Houston Rockets in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. Twelve of his points came at the free-throw line.

“Obviously, wish I played a little better, wish I made a couple more shots, but at the end of the day I had fun out there and it was good to compete,” Reaves said Wednesday, after rejoining the lineup for the first time since April 2 following an oblique injury.

On Friday, before the Lakers’ potential series-clincher in Game 6 in Houston, Redick said Reaves is “going to have to be huge” for the Lakers on offense. The 27-year-old guard returned to the starting lineup for Game 6, with Luke Kennard – who failed to make a shot on Wednesday – resuming a reserve role.

Reaves was getting a chance to help the Lakers stave off a potential Game 7, and what once seemed like an unlikely comeback from Houston after the Lakers won the first three games of the series.

Redick said, when going back into the rolodex of his career, that shaking off the rust – as Reaves is doing right now – can have different results depending on the scenario. He said during his first season with the Clippers in 2013-14, he broke and tore a ligament in his wrist. Redick said in his first game back from the injury, he scored 15 points in the first quarter alone. In the following game, Redick poured in a then-career-high 33 points in a comeback win against the Dallas Mavericks.

The Lakers coach added, however, that at another point in his career, he suffered an ankle injury and shot 3 for 13 from the field in his first game back. Redick added that he’s confident in Reaves’ ability to contribute, noting the taxing recovery process he took to make sure he could become available during the first round of the playoffs.

“The amount of work he’s put in over the last four weeks to get to this point, to be in the lineup has been remarkable, and he’s been in the gym every day, working on his body, rehabbing and getting shots up and conditioning,” Redick said of Reaves, who joked Wednesday that he had been running all over Los Angeles to try to get back on the court.

“He’s done everything he can control to put himself in a position to contribute,” Redick added.

Now, with Kennard coming off the bench, the Lakers hoped to get their sharpshooting swingman going again after rough Game 4 and 5 outings. Kennard scored 64 points through the first three games of the series, but he contributed just eight in the next two and didn’t make a 3-point shot in either one. Rockets coach Ime Udoka said the Rockets had done a good job of making Kennard “work” on the floor the past few games, limiting the Lakers’ trade deadline acquisition.

“It’s been the same message over the last week,” Redick said of what he told Kennard before Game 6. “I mean, just, you know, be aggressive. They’re showing him a ton of respect by putting Amen Thompson on him whenever he’s on the floor.”

Orange County Register

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Lakers coach JJ Redick says Austin Reaves needs to be ‘huge’ after shaking off rust

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