Los Angeles Lakers star guard Luka Doncic has the second-best odds to win the 2026 NBA MVP, but it would be a substantial upset if the award goes to anyone other than the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous Alexander, the reigning league MVP, NBA champion, and NBA Finals MVP.
But Doncic, 27, has a similar chokehold on finishing as this year’s scoring champion. It would be the six-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA player’s second scoring title in three years. For the season, Doncic is averaging 33.4 points per game.
Somehow, his average over the past six games is even more eye-popping.
“Luka Doncic is the first player to average 40 points over a six-game span, all on the road, since Michael Jordan in 1986,” ESPN’s Dave McMenamin wrote on Wednesday night, citing ESPN research producer Matt Williams.
On Wednesday, Doncic put up 43 points in the Lakers’ 137-130 win in Indiana. In doing so, Doncic matched his career-high of 11 consecutive games scoring 30-plus points.
The Lakers’ six-game road trip, which concluded in Indiana, began on March 16 in Houston.
Doncic’s per-game scoring in the five games leading up to Wednesday is as follows: 36 points in a 100-92 win in Houston on March 16, 40 points in a 124-116 win in Houston on March 18, 60 points in a 134-126 win in Miami on March 19, 33 points in a 105-104 win in Orlando on March 21, and 32 points in a 113-110 loss in Detroit on March 23.
Doncic’s 60-point performance in Miami marked the first 60-point game by a Laker since the late Kobe Bryant scored 60 in his final game on April 13, 2016.
Scoring 100 points combined in a back-to-back propelled Doncic up the MVP odds ranks, as the 47-26 Lakers ripped off a nine-game winning streak before losing in Detroit on Monday.
History would suggest that the scoring champion on a team seeded third or higher wins the MVP. But Gilgeous-Alexander has been historic - breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time record for most consecutive games with at least 20 points - as a reigning champion and on a team with the league’s best 57-16 record. Tough to beat.
Doncic’s first MVP will likely have to wait, but he and the Lakers may have the last laugh in the Western Conference playoffs. As a member of the Dallas Mavericks, Doncic was the last to beat SGA in the playoffs when the Mavs dispatched the Thunder in the 2024 conference semifinals. The Mavericks went on to lose the 2024 NBA Finals to Boston.
The good news for Doncic is that Michael Jordan hadn’t yet won his first MVP or championship when he averaged 40 over a six-game road trip in 1986. Look how that turned out for him.
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