Luka Dončić was forced to miss the Lakers’ matchup against the Pistons in Detroit on Sunday due to back tightness. The superstar has been playing out of his mind to start the season, leading the NBA by averaging a whopping 40 points per game; his absence would surely be felt by Los Angeles as it took on one of the East’s best teams.

Turns out Austin Reaves had something to say about that.

The Lakers’ other star scorer dropped 43 points on the league’s best defense by rating entering the day. Reaves went 14-for-27 from the field while draining four three-pointers and shooting 100% on 11 free-throw attempts. It wasn’t quite at the level of historic excellence Dončić has shown time and time again this season. But it was a great scoring performance versus a high-caliber opponent on a night the team really needed it. Any team with an elite scorer can rack up wins in the modern NBA. The Lakers have two. Talk about an embarrassment of riches.

Dončić racking up MVP-level numbers to kick off the year is masking the fact that Reaves himself is off to a quietly excellent start. With LeBron James leaving town over the offseason and a huge new deal signed by the shooting guard, the pressure was on Reaves to deliver as the No. 2 scoring option like never before. The Lakers’ summer was filled with tertiary signings in the form of role players who could complement Dončić best. Only Reaves had the talent to carry the offense on nights like Sunday night, to ensure the points keep coming when Dončić must sit.

So far? It’s gone very well.

Austin Reaves has been great to start the Lakers’ season

After his big game to beat the Pistons, Reaves is up to 25.3 points per game on the season on true 50/40/90 splits—hitting 50.8% of his shots from the floor, 41.3% of his shots from three and 90.9% of his free throw attempts. Only the most well-rounded scorers in the league can sniff that level of efficiency, and Reaves is firmly in that category so far. Those career-best numbers are especially impressive considering he’s never shouldered this kind of workload before; the star guard’s usage percentage clocks in at a career-high of 27%.

Thanks to the presence of Dončić, Reaves’s team doesn’t need him to light up the scoreboard every single night. But they need his production to contend. He’s the only other player on the roster now who can consistently create his own shot against any defense, good and bad. Moreover he’s also by far the best ballhandler the Lakers employ behind Dončić. Los Angeles is tasking Reaves with attacking defenses tilted towards the superstar and hold down the fort when Dončić needs a break (as he indeed does despite the superhuman nature of his opening stretch of games this season).

He’s proven up to the task through the first 11 games of the season. In helping lead L.A. to a 9-2 start, Reaves is playing great alongside Dončić and holding down the fort adequately without him. Per Databllr, lineups including both Dončić and Reaves has posted an outrageous offensive rating of 136.6 in 235 total minutes. To put that into perspective, the best offensive rating ever recorded was 123.2 by the 2023–24 Celtics. It’s a number inflated by Dončić’s outrageous start, to be sure, but there’s no denying the Lakers are currently cooking with their two star scorers on the court.

The data says Reaves is doing his job when Dončić is off the court, too. Lineups featuring Reaves but no Dončić have an offensive rating of 112.3. That’s obviously a steep drop but would still rank around 20th in the NBA over the course of a full season, which is perfectly adequate for the 12 or so minutes per game Dončić spends on the bench. Teams with do-everything superstars at the center of their offense usually struggle quite a bit to maintain production when that star has to hit the sideline; Reaves is helping L.A. avoid that issue so far.

All of those advanced analytics are translating to what matters most: winning games. The purple and gold lead the West with nine wins in their first 11 games with an average margin of victory that ranks seventh in the league. They’ve notched quality wins over the Pistons, Trail Blazers and Warriors. It’s exactly the kind of opening stretch of wins the Lakers wanted to see in the first season of the Luka Lakers era.

It’s understandable to see Dončić dominate the spotlight when it comes to the Lakers. He is their franchise face and his play this season demands that attention. The guy is scoring 50 points seemingly every other night. But in the modern NBA, the co-stars matter more than ever when it comes to impacting the win column. Reaves deserves credit for the great start Los Angeles has gotten off to in the standings department, and if he can maintain his production around this level of efficiency, an All-Star berth should be in his future.

There’s still room for improvement from the former Arkansas guard, particularly on the defensive end. But the Lakers’ two-headed monster featuring Dončić and Reaves has proven as dangerous as anticipated. Los Angeles boasts the best offense in the NBA and one can can blow up for a big night even if the other is in street clothes. That’s a situation worthy of envy from most teams around the Association.

Reaves is off to a very strong start in his sixth NBA campaign, and the Lakers are thriving for it.

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