Lakers' Austin Reaves Jokes He Has Bragging Rights Over Luka Doncic with 51-Point Game

The friendly banter between Los Angeles Lakers teammates Austin Reaves and Luka Dončić continued after Reaves went off for 51 points in Sunday's 127-120 win over the Sacramento Kings.

That's two more points than Dončić had in Los Angeles' 128-110 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves last Friday. Reaves said after the game he won't soon let the five-time All-Star forget about the difference:

In terms of his performance, Reaves said he felt some added pressure to deliver on the court with both Dončić and LeBron James unavailable.

"Especially on a night where you don't have Luka, you don't have Bron, you don't have Jaxson [Hayes], you got to go out there and be big for the team," he said, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "I wasn't in my head thinking, 'You got to go score 50.' It was, 'Do whatever you can do to help the team win.'"

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Teammate Jarred Vanderbilt was more specific in setting Reaves' scoring targets.

"I was telling AR, like, s--t, we're going to need 50 from you tonight," he said. "As you can see, he did it."

Reaves gave Luka a hard time after Dončić's 49-point outburst, singling out a missed free throw that would've put him at an even 50:

In a perfect piece of serendipity, the Lakers leaned on Reaves to seal the outcome from the line inside the final minute. He knocked down four straight free throws to close the door on Sacramento.

"I ain't gonna lie: I went to the free throw line, I'm like, 'S--t, I better not miss,'" he said while alluding to his social media reply, per McMenamin.

The Kings didn't have an answer for Reaves, who went 21-of-22 from the charity stripe and nearly had a triple-double by adding 11 rebounds and nine assists to his career-high scoring night.

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The 27-year-old can opt out of his contract after this season, and he's all but guaranteed to do so when he can secure a far bigger salary than his $14.9 million player option.

The Athletic's Dan Woike reported in September there are some who believe Reaves could get upwards of $35 million or even $40 million on the open market.

Through three games, he's averaging 34 points per contest. He's not going to maintain that pace, but an improvement over last year's scoring average (20.2 points) looks attainable.

For now, Reaves can lay claim to scoring more points than Dončić in a single game for the Lakers. If Luka wants to regain the upper hand, he just needs to show Reaves one of his paychecks.