“Little Bad Habits”: Gilbert Arenas Warns Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves Could Cost Lakers Their Championship Chances

The Los Angeles Lakers are off to a 4-1 start, and their two stars are a big reason why. Luka Doncic leads the NBA in scoring, and Austin Reaves has picked up where his breakout season left off. But Gilbert Arenas thinks the Lakers’ backcourt has a problem that could catch up with them in the playoffs: shot selection.

The three-time All-Star, a longtime Lakers fan, compared the Lakers to recent contenders like the Oklahoma City Thunder in a clip posted on X this week.

“There’s just things that those teams don’t do that the Lakers do, right? And it’s these little bad habits,” Arenas said. “You just watch them in the first quarter, second quarter, and little do you know, like, ‘Austin, that was a bad shot.’ ‘Damn, Luka, that was a horrible shot.’ You just see them take a bad shot. Now he comes back and takes a worse shot. It’s like, yo, you can’t keep doing this bulls---.”

It’s a bold criticism of a player putting up historic numbers. The 27-year-old Doncic is averaging an NBA-best 36.0 points, 8.3 assists and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 48% from the field, 40% from three and 88% from the line. He scored 52 in a 132-123 win over Utah on Sunday, and he even hit a half-court shot in the season opener against Golden State. Afterward, Reaves joked it was a “terrible shot.”

Arenas thinks Doncic's scoring makes him predictable. He even brought Stephen Curry, who mixes up his shots to keep the defenders guessing.

“I've always looked at the offense, and it's like, you made a three, damn? You made a tough three, for sure, you going to shoot the next three? Yeah, you're free,” he added. “That's why I'm like, are y'all thinking the game? Because if I know you're going to shoot the next three, they know you're going to shoot the next three. Drive. Hit ’em with the fake. Go in. Come back with the three. Like, Steph is gonna hit two, then he’s gonna pump fake, hit a midi, then he’s gonna come back with the three. It’s like you guys are so predictable sometimes.”

Arenas pointed to Doncic’s step-back three in particular. When Doncic drives left, Arenas said, “you’re gonna shoot the step back three every single time.”

Most of Doncic’s misses come on those shots, according to Arenas, while he hardly misses his one-foot floaters and bank shots in the lane. “It’s the threes that brings his percentage down,” he said.

When it comes to Austin Reaves, Arenas has mixed feelings. He loves it when Reaves catches fire to bring the Lakers back. “When we’re losing and he comes in and he starts, like, hell yeah, we needed that,” he said.

But for him, the issues come when the Lakers are up. He believes that when his team is up and they need good shots, Reaves gets caught up in what Doncic is doing and starts forcing tough shots.

Last season, Reaves averaged 23.3 points with a 64.1% true shooting percentage, one of the best marks among high-volume guards. Arenas’ point isn’t that Reaves can’t score. It’s that some of his tougher shots only look good when they go in.

Per Arenas, these are the types of “wild” shots and predictability that can stop the Lakers “from winning because you're (Doncic and Reaves) going to take some shots that you don't need to take in the playoffs.”

He even pointed out that one won't see Shai Gilgeous-Alexander take unnecessary shots.

“Like, the playoffs is, Shai’s gonna take great shots every time. You’re not gonna have wild shots.”

The playoffs will demand secure shots, tighter defense and the ability to outplay contenders that will grind their way there.

So, any slip-ups that can be laughed at in the locker room right now will prove vital in the postseason. And the best way to prepare is to build an early habit, if winning a chip matter to the Lakers, that is.