At the quarter pole, Lakers gallop strong

They're on pace for their best season since 2008-09 as Reaves-Doncic duo flourishes.

- BY THỤC NHI NGUYEN

GINA FERAZZI Los Angeles Times THE LAKERS' Luka Doncic, center, leads the league with 35.3 points per game.

At about the one-quarter mark of their season, the Lakers sit second in the Western Conference with a 15-5 record.

The 61-win pace would be the team's best year since 2008-09, but the Lakers aren't satisfied yet.

"There's a lot of slices of pizza left in the box that we can still get after," coach JJ Redick said.

Here are four takeaways from the first 20 games of the season as the Lakers begin a three-game trip Thursday in Toronto:

Good vibes

Of the things Redick likes most about his team, the first compliments have little to do with the on-court product.

"The guys have bought in," Redick said. "They get along, and they root for each other, and it's not fake."

The relationships start from the top as the budding bromance between Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves has gone viral enough to warrant fascination even in Slovenia, where a reporter came from to ask Reaves whether he had plans to visit Doncic’s home country. Reaves’ and Doncic’s love-hate relationship has spread to the rest of the team, as center Deandre Ayton uses the playful trash talk from his teammates to get him going before games.

“Just letting me be me,” Ayton said of how his teammates have welcomed him since he signed with the Lakers as a major free-agent acquisition this offseason. “They used to just talk [trash] to me before the game just to get me riled up and to where I’m riled up myself.”