{"id":677893,"date":"2026-03-25T06:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/677893\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T06:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:57:18","slug":"lakers-flex-luka-doncics-dominant-numbers-amid-heightened-mvp-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/677893\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Flex Luka Doncic\u2019s Dominant Numbers Amid Heightened MVP Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Pistons<\/a> did what no team had managed in three weeks: beat the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>. Monday’s 113-110 loss snapped a nine-game winning streak, with Daniss Jenkins dropping a career-high 30 points to spoil the party at Little Caesars Arena. Luka Doncic<\/a> shot 11-for-29 from the field and missed a contested 3-point shot at the buzzer, a rare stumble for a player who’s been operating on another planet since early March.<\/p>\n

Still, he finished with 32 points. That’s 10 straight games of 30 or more. And all of this is happening while Doncic navigates a custody battle<\/a> with ex-fianc\u00e9e Anamaria Goltes over their two daughters, both of whom remain in Slovenia.<\/p>\n

When asked how he manages to perform at this level amid the turmoil, Doncic was honest: “That’s life, I don’t know what to say. But that’s my job, so I have to be here. They pay me a lot to play for them, so… and also basketball is giving me some kind of peace when I play a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

That peace has translated into violence against NBA<\/a> defenses, making Doncic a compelling candidate in the NBA MVP conversation. The Lakers pushed his candidacy on Tuesday with a social media post highlighting his statistical dominance across seven categories.<\/p>\n

Doncic is first in points per game (33.4), first in three-pointers made per game (4.0), first in 30+point games (60), first in 40-point games (13), first in rebounds per game among guards (7.9), second in 30-point triple-doubles (7, behind Nikola Joki\u0107’s 10), and third in assists per game (8.4).<\/p>\n

The Slovenian just pulled off one of the most dominant scoring runs in the Lakers franchise history during their nine-game winning stretch: 40.0 points, 8.4 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game. That includes a 60-point demolition of Miami, the highest-scoring game by an opposing player at Kaseya Center.<\/p>\n

The last Laker to log a 60-point game was Kobe Bryant<\/a> in his final game. Notably, the Lakers\u2019 post on Doncic dropped at an intriguing moment in the MVP debate.<\/p>\n

Victor Wembanyama’s MVP Comments Divide the NBA<\/p>\n

Hours before the Lakers fell in Detroit, Victor Wembanyama<\/a> made his case clear after San Antonio dismantled Miami 136-111. The 22-year-old laid out three arguments for why he should lead the MVP race: defense is 50 percent of the game and undervalued in voting, the Spurs nearly swept Oklahoma City this season, and offensive impact extends beyond scoring.<\/p>\n

“I think right now there is a debate. There should be, even though I think I should lead the race,” Wembanyama told reporters<\/a>. “My goal is to make sure there is no debate at the end of the season.”<\/p>\n

The comments sparked immediate reaction. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith<\/a> admitted Wembanyama had swayed him: “He’s done changed my mind.” Analyst Brian Windhorst echoed that sentiment, conceding his heart pointed toward the Spurs’ center even as logic suggested Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not everyone was impressed, however.<\/p>\n

Even before Wembanyama\u2019s open statement, Skip Bayless, speaking on the “Gil’s Arena” podcast, had questioned his consistency. “When he decides before a game, as he did in four of the five Thunder games, when he decides he is going to play tonight, he plays his [expletive] off. But there are many games along the trail where I don’t know what he is doing,” Bayless said.<\/a><\/p>\n

“SGA plays every dribble of every night. It’s not like Russell Westbrook-hard. It’s not shocking to your eye, but he’s playing at the same speed every dribble every night. So to me, he is still it, his team is still it.”<\/p>\n

Nick Wright reinforced<\/a> that view, arguing Wembanyama cannot claim the best-player mantle until he consistently scores 30 points. Doncic, meanwhile, keeps doing exactly that, even on his worst shooting nights. The Lakers finish their road trip on Wednesday in Indiana.<\/p>\n

Related: Lakers Announce Luka Doncic History During Bulls Game<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Pistons did what no team had managed in three weeks: beat the Los Angeles Lakers. Monday’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,6101,188,113,1536,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,368,295,6,2033,253,475,969,209,534,693],"class_list":["post-677893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-lakers","tag-basketball","tag-daniss-jenkins","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-indiana","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-la","tag-la-lakers","tag-lakers","tag-lalakers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleslakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-miami","tag-nba","tag-nba-mvp","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-san-antonio","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-spurs","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116288516912661881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}