LOS ANGELES — Austin Reaves scored 38 points, and Luka Dončić finished with 35 points and 11 assists in his first game as the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up play in the Emirates NBA Cup West Group B, beating the Dallas Mavericks 129-119 at Crypto. Com Arena on Friday night. The Lakers finished on a 13–1 run, shooting nearly 60 percent from the field to recover from Anthony Davis’s return and secure a home quarterfinal in the in-season tournament, Nov. 28, 2025.
Late run guards Lakers’ West Group A victory
The Mavericks took a brief 110–109 lead with under six minutes remaining, before the Lakers responded with a game-sealing 13–1 run, capped by Rui Hachimura’s corner 3-pointer, Dončić’s ball-handling, and Reaves’ free throws. The outcome, a 129–119 win that clinched a 4–0 sweep of West Group B, also improved Los Angeles to 14–4 and extended its winning streak to six games.
Reaves’ dream season keeps cooking for Lakers.
He showed why, too — Reaves, an undrafted guard from the University of Oklahoma who has become one of the Lakers’ most reliable closers, was close to perfect. He was 12 of 15 from the field, including 6 of 8 from long range, and had 8 rebounds, scoring 19 after halftime. His outburst is the latest in a series of inspired performances from Kuzma, after he erupted for 45 points against the Indiana Pacers months ago and established himself as one of the top scoring options in Los Angeles.
Dončić tops former team as Davis returns.
Dončić, who in his third game against Dallas since the February trade that sent him and Davis from Dallas to Los Angeles, carved up his former team once again. He had 35 points and 11 assists, exploiting mismatches in the pick-and-roll and making double teams pay with skip passes to open shooters.
It was an emotional and uneven return from the hamstring injury for Davis in Los Angeles since then.
expired deal that turned Dončić into a Laker and sent him to the Mavericks.
The eight-time All-Star, playing his second game back from a calf injury that kept him out for 14 games, scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds in limited minutes as Dallas dropped to 1–3 in group play and out of Cup contention.
Lakers’ NBA Cup superiority extends beyond one night.
The Lakers’ most recent NBA Cup title sealed a group-stage journey that began with Dončić’s 44-point return to Memphis and continued with comfortable wins at New Orleans and at home against the Clippers. A late-November breakdown of West Group B illustrated exactly how completely the Lakers had taken command of the pool, and Friday’s win turned that into a 4–0 mark and home-court advantage in the quarterfinals.
It is only the third year of the midseason event, which has been rebranded the Emirates NBA Cup, and the Lakers are among others vying to reclaim a trophy they won in 2023 after being upset by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2024. With play moving from group nights to single elimination,
Cup format and standings updates
show L.A. seeded within the top 10, with a home quarterfinal at Crypto. Com Arena before the semifinals and the final shift to Las Vegas.
Up next, the Lakers will face the knockout-round bracket and a visiting wild-card or group winner, with Dončić serving as Exhibit A of what can happen when they finally break from their own tradition. ” This is now Cup into an early-season billboard for the franchise’s latest reinvention.
