LOS ANGELES - Luka Dončić already had the scoring numbers. He had the rebounds, the assists, the efficiency, and the kind of month that can put a player squarely in the MVP conversation.
In late March, he was averaging 37.5 points over 16 games, along with eight rebounds and 7.4 assists, while shooting nearly 50% from the field and close to 40% from deep. The Lakers were rolling, going 15-2 in March and climbing into a top-four seed.
When asked where he stood in the race, Dončić kept it simple: “I’m not the one voting,” he said.
Privately, though, the people around him believed he wanted the award. And he felt he had earned it.
Then an early April hamstring injury shut down that push. Now Dončić is back, and the start to this season has been every bit as loud as the finish to the last one.
Through seven games, he is putting up 38.3 points, eight rebounds and 8.1 assists. He has topped 40 points four times already and has scored at least 37 in five games.
After he dropped 42 in Monday’s win over Miami, Giannis Antetokounmpo called him one of the best scorers in basketball. Then he went further, saying, “Of all time.”
Nobody needed convincing that Dončić can score. He has averaged at least 27 points per game since his second season, carved up defenses for 6 1/2 seasons in Dallas and parts of three with the Lakers, made six All-NBA first teams and six All-Star teams, and led the league in scoring twice.
Before Monday’s game, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was asked how to slow him down. “There’s not going to be two defenders on him, or even three,” Spoelstra said.
“You’re pretty much going to go through your entire roster of different looks.”
What has changed, at least for now, is the other end. Dončić’s defense has become part of the story, or at minimum his willingness to commit to it.
On Sunday against Toronto, he poured in 45 points and added 15 defensive rebounds, five steals, three charges and a block. The Lakers were plus-27 with him on the floor, and no other player on the team was better than plus-14.
“I think a lot of times you can just be agog at his offensive prowess,” said J.J. Redick.
“And watching some of the tape [from Sunday] and even during the game, I think our guys were agog at his defense. It was awesome.
It was inspiring. I really mean that.”
Dončić agreed that the work on that side has taken a step forward. “Obviously, I'm not the best defender in the NBA, but I think this year, I really took a step forward.
Obviously, people are going to talk what they want to talk [about] me. But I know, and my team knows, that I'm better this year.”
The team around him is helping make the case, too. The Lakers are 6-2 to open the season and sit second in the NBA in points per game and offensive rating, while also ranking in the top 10 in net rating.
Their starting five has produced a league-best 135.5 offensive rating among lineups that have played at least 40 minutes together. When Dončić is on the court, Los Angeles has outscored opponents by 113 points.
Austin Reaves has flourished beside him. Walker Kessler, the Lakers’ big offseason addition, is averaging a double-double and shooting 71.4% from the floor. Matisse Thybulle and Ziaire Williams have given them two-way play on the wings.
Dončić saw pieces of this coming long before the season tipped off. Last August, while drinking a macchiato at a rooftop bar in Ljubljana, he spoke confidently about what the Lakers could become.
He doesn’t keep notes on opposing players, but he does keep track of the ones he wants to play with. Kessler was one of them.
“He's so tall, but then also he's very fast for a tall guy and he can roll really good,” Dončić said. “He can just put it up there, he can dunk it.
And he's very active.” He also likes the idea of playing with wings like Thybulle and Williams.
Still, the rough edges are there. The bench has been a problem, sitting in the bottom third and being outscored by more than 12 points per game.
The rebounding has been poor. Last week, the Lakers blew a 25-point lead in a loss to the Warriors.
On Sunday, Redick had to go back to the starters late after the second unit nearly let a double-digit lead slip away in the closing minutes. Defensively, the Lakers are in the back half of the league in rating and points allowed.
Dončić and Reaves are also averaging nearly 10 turnovers per game.
“We are gonna be patient,” Redick said. “There’s also, along with patience, doing what you’re supposed to do. And I think as we play more games together, we do more walkthroughs together, we watch more film together, do more practices together, that will all get better.”
For now, the Lakers are betting on Dončić’s ability to “bend the defense,” as Redick put it. The MVP race won’t be decided in October, and Dončić can’t carry it as a one-dimensional scorer with Victor Wembanyama in the mix and two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander still putting up numbers.
He has to keep defending. He has to stay away from the referees.
And he has to keep the Lakers in the upper half of a conference that can change fast.
That’s the assignment. The Lakers need an MVP version of Dončić to make it all work.
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