It was the Luka Doncic show once again when the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat 134-126 at Kaseya Center on Thursday. Doncic recorded his first 60-point game of the season on the night and, surprisingly, received MVP chants from the fans in Miami.
While those fans in the arena believed they were witnessing the MVP in action, the media at large haven’t included Doncic in that conversation for much of this season. So, the events of the night led to Lakers head coach JJ Redick being asked in his postgame press conference why he thinks the Slovenian hasn’t been included, and he had a snarky response.
“Cuz he complains to the refs, I don’t know,” Redick said, via Spectrum SportsNet.
Redick was referring to all the talk about Doncic’s complaining. He was seemingly coming under fire from all corners for it at one point.
NBA analyst Zach Lowe said the complaining made Doncic unwatchable. Lowe felt the whining was back to the levels it was at during the six-time All-Star’s tenure with the Dallas Mavericks. We even saw New Orleans Pelicans‘ color analyst Antonio Daniels take a shot at Doncic for his complaining. It seemed like all the focus was on that, and not on what he was doing on the court.
Doncic has been great all season long, but he has taken his game up a notch lately. The Lakers made it eight wins in a row by taking down the Heat here, and he is averaging 40.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 2.4 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game during this streak. The 27-year-old has been very efficient as well, shooting 50.2% from the field and 42.2% from beyond the arc.
Redick heaped praise on Doncic for this stretch of play later on in his press conference, and also touched on the MVP discussion.
“It’s a special run that he’s on,” Redick said. “And we’ve seen all-time greats like him go on these runs, and you just kind of got to embrace it and enjoy the moment… To the MVP point, we would not be anywhere near the position we’re in without him having the season that he’s having. And particularly of late, he’s dominating right now.”
It’s been a ridiculous run, but you’d actually expected Doncic to struggle a bit against the Heat. This was the second night of a back-to-back for the Lakers, after they had beaten the Houston Rockets 124-116 on the road on Wednesday. As if a road back-to-back wasn’t bad enough, The Athletic’s Dan Woike had reported that the team arrived at their South Florida hotel after 5 a.m. on Thursday.
Doncic had played 38 minutes against the Rockets and racked up 40 points (12-25 FG), nine rebounds, 10 assists, and one steal. You wondered how much gas was left in the tank, and he even popped up on the injury report with right hip soreness.
Doncic was eventually cleared to play, and he dominated the Heat. To go with the 60 points (18-30 FG), he had seven rebounds, three assists, and five steals. If this kind of performance doesn’t get Doncic in the MVP conversation, then nothing will. He was asked about not finding his name in it during his postgame press conference.
“That’s you guys, media,” Doncic said, via HoopsHype. “I ain’t got nothing to do with that.”
Well, we did have Doncic at third in our latest MVP power rankings. He’ll keep climbing up if he keeps playing the way he is right now.
Doncic helped the Lakers improve to 45-25 on the season with this win, and they remain third in the Western Conference. They’ll be in action next against the Orlando Magic at the Kia Center on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.
