The Lakers have a lot to be thankful for. LeBron James is back. Deandre Ayton could be back. They have Luka Doncic. They’re the second-seeded team in the West with a 12-4 record. Doncic and Austin Reaves are a bunch of kids. The Lakers spent Thanksgiving together (kind of, LeBron went back home to post about the turkey prep) and a whole lot of kids. And these kids looked real mature next to the oversized petty kids in Lakers shirts. Austin Reaves, in particular, got a little bit of revenge in.

And the funniest part? All this is happening while the Lakers are in the middle of a five-game heater and just bullied the Clippers 135–118 to clinch top spot in their NBA Cup group, with Luka dropping 43 and Reaves piling on 31 in that one.

Austin ‘introduced’ Luka Doncic to the kids by asking, “Y’all know who that is?” Luka almost turned it around by asking the kids, “Do you guys like him?” about Reaves, but didn’t even get the last word in because AR said, “My least favorite teammate.”

All this in front of actual kids. They made 21-year-old Adou Thiero look like the dependable big bro in this clip for cheering on the little ones in the games. In some of the other Thanksgiving clips, Thiero is basically the camp counselor playing the mini-games with them, hyping them up, even low-key interviewing a couple of kids like he’s running his own junior media day.

The silliness wasn’t limited to Reaves and Doncic. LeBron James, Deandre Ayton, and Marcus Smart had an arsenal of goofy faces while posing with the kids. Adou got abandoned once Luka started teaching the kids trick shots. And the grown boys were more fascinated by the games than they let the kiddos play.

The usual silly banter between Austin and Luka is probably why they’re the duo with an unbelievable offensive rating (124.6). So we want more of it, and they always deliver.

Austin Reaves is matching Luka Doncic’s energy

Austin Reaves wasn’t the first to announce who his least favorite teammate was. At the Lakers training camp, Doncic said Austin is his “least favorite” and he’s a “He’s a big kid, very childish.” Doncic really needs some introspection. Back in October, Reaves once yelled to reporters that Luka was his “favorite teammate,” only for Doncic to deadpan to the cameras that Reaves was actually his least favorite, calling him “a big kid” and “very childish” with the straightest face he could manage.

Because while he’s had a bunch of 40+ point games and Reaves is having a career season, Luka has done ‘childish’ things like tell a reporter, “[Reaves] wants to be friends but I’m not allowing it,” and said there’s nothing Austin can do to fix that.

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When Austin claimed that Doncic could average 40 points a game, Luka called him “stupid.” And what happens? Luka has consecutive 40+ point games at the start of the season. That came right after Dave McMenamin asked Luka if he could really average 40 a night. Luka tried to play it down, “that’s going to be tough,” until McMenamin mentioned that Reaves believed he could do it. Luka cracked a grin and dropped the now-famous: “Austin’s stupid.”

Right after they beat the Clippers off of Luka’s 38 and Austin’s 35, and clinched their spot in the NBA Cup knockout rounds, Doncic meanly interrupted the other guard’s interview by throwing a towel and telling him, “I hate you.” 

That whole night was peak Luka: in between 43–13–9, he got into it with Kris Dunn (who ended up ejected), watched Jaxson Hayes get T’d up for stepping in, then told reporters he’d happily pay whatever fine Hayes gets for having his back. He even called the Cup court “slippery” and “dangerous” because of how much guys were sliding around on it.

Now, why won’t Austin call him his least favorite after all that? But to be fair, Doncic got his revenge at the Thanksgiving party by slamming a ball (not too hard) on Reaves’ head. Just a typical Thanksgiving sibling banter.