Yesterday Austin Reaves was calling out Luka Doncic’s silliness. Today, he’s standing up for him while probably fearing the worst for his ‘friend.’ They can pretend that they’re not friends and what not, but this bromance was fueling the Lakers’ for most of the season. Now Doncic may have aggravated his hamstring and could be out for a long time. His bestie was not going to let anyone kick him while he was down.

April 2, 2026 would be seared in LakeShow’s memory but it would haunt the Lakers players on the floor tonight. As the team was heading for a blowout 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, they had to watch their point guard stagger in a play. The inevitable happened. After playing through pain for many games, Doncic aggravated his hamstring. He was trying to go up for a shot against OKC’s Jalen Williams and stopped. He slowly went down on the floor due to pain and his teammates rushed over.

Sadly, he wasn’t getting much sympathy in the arena. He was very close to the sidelines which became prime fodder for a rude spectator. As Doncic lay wincing in pain, a fan at the Paycom Center taunted the injured star.

sparking a heated verbal confrontation with Lakers guard Austin Reaves. “Now you don’t wanna play defense?” the fan could be heard saying out of the camera’s view. What the camera did catch was Austin Reaves’s absolute fury.

“Shut the f–k up! He’s f–king hurt!” Reaves fired back. The fan turned his ragebaiting to AR by yelling, “F— you.” Reaves returned that same energy with “F–k you. Have some respect.”

Ironically, Jalen Williams’ showed more grace than his fan. “I tried to let it go out of bounds and give them time to figure it out,” Williams admitted after the game while wishing Doncic a speedy recovery.

Doncic was helped up by staff and he left the court with less than eight minutes left in the third quarter. He was so devastated, he seemed to hide his tears behind his jersey. This fan interaction just added another layer of heartbreak to the Lakers’ worst night of the season.

 Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic put Lakers fans through a rollercoaster

Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic’s bond was perhaps the best outcome of that February 2, 2025 trade. With a matching sense of humor, the duo fueled the Lakers offense against all the preseason speculation that AR would be sidelined in the Slovenian superstar’s shadow.

In the month that Reaves was away due to a calf injury, we missed those offcourt moments while the Lakers’ offense struggled. But in late March, the Lakers had found their offensive identity driven by Doncic, Reaves, and LeBron James.

One of their hilarious moments came after the Lakers’ 127-113 win over the Cavaliers on April 1. Luka blasted “Texas” by BigXthaPlug during Reave’s interview sparking a hilarious exchange. “You only like it cause it says your name,” Austin had claimed but Doncic had left by then.

Despite their cartoonish antics, they remain deeply protective of each other. As evident by that exchange today.

The setbacks weren’t limited to Luka either. Austin Reaves sat out the fourth quarter after hurting his back in the game. Even he’s going through a medical evaluation to determine his availability.

There was no opportunity for the Lakers to recover from that 43-point deficit. They now have to wait to see how severe Doncic’s injury is while Reaves would probably to fill the void.