Austin Reaves and Luka Dončić have been running together on the Lakers’ backcourt long enough that the rest of us are still catching up to how tight these two actually are. The latest peek behind the curtain: Reaves says Dončić invited him over for New Year’s Eve, and the two ended up in a bowling marathon that stretched past sunrise.
“We ended up bowling until 5:30 in the morning,” Reaves said in a video clip circulating this week. “He can’t beat me, I told him you can’t beat me in your own house.”
Dončić, for those keeping score, has a bowling setup at his home. Reaves apparently treated it like a road game and still covered the spread. The clip made the rounds on Reddit’s r/nba community and was picked up by Lakers-focused social accounts, racking up views as fans latched onto the image of two NBA starters grinding frames at half past five in the morning like it was a Tuesday night league in Akron.
The bowling night wasn’t a one-off, either. According to USA Today Sports, Reaves has been back to Dončić’s house for additional rounds since that initial New Year’s Eve session — which, for two guys who see each other every day at work, tells you something about the dynamic. Reaves described the relationship in terms that had nothing to do with pick-and-roll coverage: he said the two “act like we’re probably 10-year-old best friends,” per the New York Post.
That bond has been on display in ways that go beyond late-night strikes. Dončić wrote Reaves a letter ahead of the Lakers’ Christmas Day matchup with the Rockets. In March, the two combined for one of the season’s most chaotic finishes — Reaves scored off a rebound from his own missed free throw to force overtime against Denver, and Dončić drained the winning jumper in the extra frame for a 127-125 Lakers win. Before Reaves dropped 51 on the Kings, Dončić texted him: “I need 60 tonight.”
The friendship is also surfacing at a pivot point for the franchise. The Lakers are entering a post-LeBron James era, and the Reaves-Dončić pairing — built on alley-oops, shared postgame interviews, and apparently 5:30 AM bowling grudge matches — is becoming the team’s central storyline. Dončić has reportedly been sending Reaves daily golf swing videos, because of course he has. The guy can’t stop competing even when the sport changes.
None of this is load management. None of this shows up in a spreadsheet. Two guys who get paid millions to play basketball went home and bowled until the sun came up, and one of them wouldn’t let the other forget who won. That’s the kind of stupid, beautiful competitiveness you can’t coach and can’t fake.
Reaves didn’t specify the final score. He didn’t need to. The message was clear enough: his house, his lanes, and Reaves still took the W.
- Streamable — Reaves video clip (original source)
- Reddit r/nba — discussion thread
- USA Today Sports — Reaves on bond with Dončić (July 13, 2026)
- New York Post — Reaves reveals Dončić’s daily chats and golf obsession (July 14, 2026)
- ESPN — Lakers’ Reaves, Dončić deliver late-game magic in OT thriller (March 15, 2026)