{"id":537681,"date":"2026-03-13T11:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/537681\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T11:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T11:39:10","slug":"luka-doncic-for-mvp-nba-fans-sound-off-after-lakers-star-scores-51-in-lebrons-return-from-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/537681\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic for MVP? NBA Fans Sound Off After Lakers Star Scores 51 in LeBron&#8217;s Return from Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Three days after Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put together an MVP performance in a marquee win over the Denver Nuggets, Luka Don\u010di\u0107 hit back to keep his name in the race with an incredible showing in the Los Angeles Lakers&#8217; 142-130 win over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Don\u010di\u0107 nearly put up a 50-point triple-double, finishing with 51 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in 37 minutes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Lakers also got strong contributions from LeBron James, playing in his first game since March 5 due to foot and elbow injuries, and Austin Reaves. James had 18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Reaves put up 30 for the second straight game. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">As vital as the contributions from James and Reaves were in a high-scoring affair, it was Don\u010di\u0107&#8217;s dominant effort that had fans and analysts talking about where he stacks up in the MVP race with one month remaining in the regular season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">According to Don\u010di\u0107, one of the things that motivated him to take over the game was on-court trash talk from Matas Buzelis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">&#8220;Somebody started talking to me, so that woke me up,&#8221; Don\u010di\u0107 <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/48192204\/luka-doncic-drops-51-lakers-explode-lebron-return\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">told reporters<\/a> after the win. &#8220;I&#8217;m not going to say what he said, but if I said that, I would definitely get a tech.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">In 12 games since the All-Star break, Don\u010di\u0107 is averaging 32.9 points on 43.7 percent three-point shooting, 8.2 rebounds and 8.1 assists per contest. He&#8217;s leading the league in scoring average overall (32.9). <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">On top of Don\u010di\u0107&#8217;s individual success, the Lakers (41-25) have hit their stride once again after a brief lull. They have won four straight games and moved up to the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Lakers&#8217; next six games could go a long way toward deciding if Don\u010di\u0107 is really going to push Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama for the MVP award because they are all against teams with winning records. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">They host Nikola Joki\u0107 and the Nuggets on Saturday in an ABC primetime game, followed by a six-game road trip starting on Monday that includes matchups with the Houston Rockets (twice), Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three days after Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put together an MVP performance in a marquee win over the Denver Nuggets,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-537681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}