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Austin Reaves made it clear that the Lakers are ready to go to battle vs. the Thunder

The Los Angeles Lakers managed to overcome a slew of injuries to advance past the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2025-26 NBA Playoffs. Now, they have a daunting matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder on their hands, and according to Austin Reaves, it sounds like this team is ready to battle.

Reaves missed the majority of the Lakers’ first-round clash with the Rockets with an oblique injury, but he returned to help his squad close out the series in six games. While Luka Doncic is still sidelined with a hamstring injury, Reaves isn’t backing down from Oklahoma City, as he sent the team a warning in the wake of L.A.’s Game 6 victory over Houston.

Austin Reaves Warns Thunder — ‘We’ll Be Ready’

A big reason why Los Angeles wasn’t initially given much of a shot against Houston was because of Reaves’ injury absence. In the 2025-26 campaign, Reaves took another step forward for the Lakers (23.3 PPG, 5.5 APG, 4.7 RPG, 49 FG%), and he seems set to earn a massive raise this upcoming offseason.

And yet, even without him and Doncic on the floor, the Lakers managed to coast by the Rockets in six games. Houston was dealing with its own injury woes, as Kevin Durant suited up for just one game in this series, but Los Angeles proved to be a far grittier team than most folks expected them to be entering the playoffs.

Now, L.A.’s tallest task of the season is staring it dead in the eyes, as the team will have to take down the reigning NBA champions in order to advance to the Western Conference Finals. While Reaves is back in action, Doncic isn’t expected to return until midway through this series. Despite that, Reaves seems very confident in his squad’s chances against the highly touted Thunder.

“To close it out the way we did is special,” Reaves admitted. “Next is OKC. Gotta go in there and battle. We’ll be ready.”

Can the Lakers Actually Defeat the Thunder?

GettyThunder and Lakers open series on Tuesday.

The Thunder comfortably swept the Phoenix Suns in their first-round series, as they appear to be as ruthlessly efficient as ever. The Lakers haven’t exactly put their best foot forward in their previous meetings earlier this season, and that was with Doncic on the court. The playoffs are a completely different beast, though, and there’s no telling how these two teams will fare over the course of a seven-game series, especially with Doncic’s injury situation lingering over things.

Los Angeles did well to get past a difficult Houston squad, but Oklahoma City presents a whole new set of challenges that this team may not be ready for. Unless Doncic can return and immediately play at an MVP-caliber level, it’s tough to see how the Lakers will find a way to beat the Thunder in this series. Anything can happen in the game of basketball, though, and you can bet fans will be tuning in for this series once it gets underway at 8:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday night.