![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2265767076-e1773414219221.jpg\")
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Lakers guard Luka Doncic, who had 51 points for the game over Bulls, reacts after a play in the second half at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles Thursday, March 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic<\/a> scored 51 points in the Los Angeles <\/a>Lakers<\/a>\u2018 win over the Chicago Bulls<\/a>, in what was his highest-scoring game with the team since being traded to Southern California in February of 2025.<\/p>\n Now, after arguably his best performance with the Lakers, Doncic has shot up the NBA<\/a> MVP rankings on the league\u2019s official website. According to Shaun Powell,<\/a> who composed a new NBA MVP ladder at least once a week, Doncic is now fourth in the race to win the league\u2019s most prestigious regular-season award.<\/p>\n t.co\/wWGNmWnCY9\u2019s<\/a> updated MVP Ladder:<\/p>\n 1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Doncic began the season with high MVP odds<\/a>, but those dropped after some injuries and early-season Lakers struggles. But now, amid Los Angeles\u2019 hot streak and his high-scoring performances, Doncic has jumped back up in the MVP race, though still far behind some of the other favorites for the award.<\/p>\n Luka Doncic MVP Odds\u00a0<\/p>\n A few weeks ago, Doncic was anywhere from fifth to eighth in most NBA MVP odds and rankings lists. While, according to some sportsbooks and prediction markets, he still ranks behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, Nikola <\/a>Jokic<\/a>, Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, Cade Cunningham<\/a>, and even Jaylen Brown<\/a>, that isn\u2019t the case on NBA.com.<\/p>\n According to Powell, Doncic only sits behind Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama, and Jokic in the MVP race, recently passing Cunningham, as he and the Detroit Pistons<\/a> have gone on a recent skid, while the Lakers, led by the Slovenian, have put together a strong stretch. He\u2019s now up to fourth after being ranked sixth in the previous NBA MVP rankings.<\/p>\n On the season, Doncic is averaging a league-leading 32.9 points<\/a>, along with 7.9 rebounds, 8.5 assists (3rd), and 1.5 steals on 47.5\/36.7\/77.6 shooting splits.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this point, it would be a surprise if Don\u010di\u0107\u00a0doesn\u2019t maintain the NBA scoring lead and capture that title,\u201d Powell wrote. \u201cAfter averaging \u2018just\u2019 27 points in February, his lowest scoring month of the season, he burst into March, helped by a 44-pointer against the Pacers, and shows few signs of falling off a 30-point pace.\u201d<\/p>\n Doncic hasn\u2019t<\/a> scored less than 27 points in March, while the Lakers have gone 6-1 this month and have shot back up to third in the Western Conference standings.<\/p>\n According to DraftKings<\/a>, Doncic still only has NBA MVP odds of +15000, ranking sixth. Similarly, on FanDuel<\/a>, he has +20000 odds to win the award.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama, and Jokic have an even stronger case to win the MVP, Doncic\u2019s offensive prowess and overall success leading the Lakers this season make him a viable candidate to at least be in the conversation for the award.<\/p>\n Doncic has never finished higher than 3rd in MVP voting<\/a> through the first seven seasons of his NBA career.<\/p>\n Luka Doncic Scores 51 Points vs Bulls<\/p>\n Doncic most recently dropped 51 points, ten rebounds, and nine assists against the Bulls in his highest-scoring game with the Lakers, and his highest-scoring game in more than two years.<\/p>\n After the win, the star claimed Chicago forward Matas Buzelis<\/a> played a part in him going for his Lakers scoring-high.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSomebody started talking to me, so that woke me up,\u201d Doncic said of Buzelis, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say what he said, but if I said that, I would definitely get a tech.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2018d rather not say what I said. But he said something to me first. So that\u2019s why I had to respond. And I mean, I\u2019m not gonna say what he said either. But I just felt like I responded to what he said.\u201d<\/p>\n Buzelis went on to say that he regretted making comments<\/a> to Doncic that ignited his 51 points.<\/p>\n Doncic also tied his career-high in three-pointers made, hitting nine against the Bulls in the 12-point win.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s playing as well as anybody in the NBA right now,\u201d Lakers head coach JJ Redick said<\/a>. \u201cI think that\u2019s, you know, it\u2019s probably not being talked about enough \u2014 so I\u2019m going to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, even after his most points of the season, Doncic will likely miss out on the NBA MVP award, but he\u2019s made a strong case with the Lakers\u2019 recent success and his performances over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEli Gregorski<\/a> is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy Sports. He has years of sports writing experience covering the NBA, NFL, college football and basketball, international soccer, and Formula One. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was the assistant sports editor for the award-winning CU Independent student publication. More about Eli Gregorski<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Lakers guard Luka Doncic, who had 51 points for the game over Bulls, reacts after a play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-538003","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\/538003","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=538003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2. Victor Wembanyama
\n3. Nikola Joki\u0107
\n4. Luka Don\u010di\u0107
\n5. Cade Cunningham
\n6. Donovan Mitchell
\n7. Jaylen Brown
\n8. Anthony Edwards
\n9. Kawhi Leonard
\n10. Jalen Johnson<\/p>\n