Luka Doncic & Austin Reaves Detail Bond Driving Lakers’ Rise

The transformation of the Los Angeles Lakers this season has been powered largely by the fast connection between Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, a pairing that has flourished each on the court docket and away from it.

Regardless of issues that two ball-dominant guards may battle to coexist, Doncic and Reaves have as an alternative emerged as one of many league’s most efficient backcourts, every taking part in at an All-Star stage. Reaves just lately opened up about how rapidly the connection shaped, talking with Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

“I noticed that we had — I don’t love saying this — many similarities in how we wish to compete in all various things,” Reaves stated. “Not simply basketball. No matter. Playing cards, bowling, darts … which he hasn’t overwhelmed me at both.”

That competitiveness, Reaves believes, has translated immediately into their on-court chemistry.

“We act like we’re in all probability 10-year outdated finest associates,” Reaves stated. “You have got a deeper take care of each other than simply basketball. After which that bleeds into basketball, since you don’t need to let that individual down. … You don’t need to not give it your all.”

From Doncic’s perspective, the partnership has felt seamless from the beginning.

“We type of perceive one another — what the opposite goes to do,” Doncic stated. “So I might say it’s a little bit bit pure.”

The dynamic hasn’t gone unnoticed by head coach JJ Redick, who highlighted their shared edge and trash-talking tendencies.

“I feel it’s in a very wholesome place,” Redick stated. “I feel what they realized early within the preseason, I don’t know if it was the primary street journey or the second that we went on, however they each realized that they each take pleasure in speaking trash quite a bit. And their personalities in that regard are very related to allow them to kind of create a little bit little bit of chemistry with one another simply by being their pure selves.”