Exclusive | How Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves became friends and NBAs best offensive duo

Austin Reaves didn’t know what to think of Luka Dončić when he first met him. After the Mavericks stunningly traded Dončić to the Lakers in February 2025, the Slovenian superstar mostly kept to himself. Reaves acknowledged he didn’t even think they would become friends. “I wasn’t joking,” Reaves told the California Post in an exclusive interview.“There were times when the trade first happened where we would walk by each other in the locker room and not say anything to each other because I didn’t know what to say to him. That was the first reaction: ‘What is this guy going to be like?'”It’s hard to believe that was just a year and a half ago. Nowadays they often spend their afternoons together on golf courses.

They jokingly take shots at each other during interviews.And they have each other’s backs.  Their chemistry has translated onto the court, where they’re the NBA’s best offensive duo.Dončić leads the league in scoring (36 points per game).

Reaves is 16th (24.4 points per game).Dončić and Reaves are the highest-scoring duo in the league (60.4 points per game) by a landslide, averaging nine points more than Steph Curry and Yaxel Lendeborg (51.4 points per game) who are second.

They’re averaging more combined points per game than the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal duo ever did, including when they averaged a combined-high of 57.5 points in 2001-2002 en route to leading the Lakers to three straight championships.Their synergy on and off the court is the ultimate proof that Dončić has embraced the Lakers. When Dončić was dealt to the Lakers, he was shellshocked. He was coming off a 2023-2024 campaign in which he led the Mavericks to the Finals and finished third in MVP voting before Dallas ripped the rug out from under him. Dončić had wanted to spend his entire career with the Mavericks.

Instead he was left feeling betrayed and mortified as the only NBA superstar of his caliber to be jettisoned against hi...