LOS ANGELES —
Luka Dončić has heard it all.He can’t play defense. He’s a showman, a front runner, a whiny shot-chucker whose game isn’t conducive to winning. He can average all the stats he wants. It won’t translate to anything.
Sunday night, in theLakers’ 131-125 win over the Toronto Raptors, he proved that he’s more than what people say he is.
He’s just a great basketball player. Perhaps the best in the world.
Every time Dončić went to the free throw line on Sunday, he was met with “M-V-P” chants
from the Crypto.com Arena crowd.
It wasn’t just the 45 points and eight 3-pointers that inspired the ovation. It was also the defensive engagement, the 15 rebounds (all defensive), five steals and three drawn charges over 35 minutes, each second more crucial than the next. It was the product of an initiative he set for himself ahead of this season.
“Obviously I’m not the best defender in the NBA,” Dončić said postgame. “But I think this year I really took a step forward. Obviously people are going to talk what they want to talk. The media is going to talk what they want to talk, but my team knows that [and] I think that I’m better this year, and that helps the whole team.”
The ninth-year superstar entered Sunday’s game averaging a league-leading 36.2 points per game, a figure that’s only going up after another offensive onslaught. And yet, as he averages 43.8 points over his last four contests, it’s as much his defensive activity that’s inspiring the Lakers.
“He’s been awesome on defense,” head coach JJ Redick said Sunday. “Even his on-ball [pressure] throughout this early stretch of games has been really good in terms of containment. … He’s doing a great job just talking on defense beyond just the steals and the charges and the rebounding. Fifteen defensive rebounds. Just phenomenal.”
Players of Dončić’s offensive caliber, who are relied on as much as he is, are often less willing to sacrifice their bodies on the other end of the floor. But for Dončić, as quiet and mild-tempered as he is off the floor, standing in front of a driving opponent and risking his body in the moment signals something greater.
“I think taking a charge in general is just a form of leadership,” Redick said. “Putting your body on the line for the team. He’s just trying to win. You see the competitiveness come out so many times on the offensive end, but he’s competitive on the defensive end, too.”
When Walker Kessler listed off the players on the roster that would contribute to Los Angeles having one of the best defenses in the league, even he overlooked Dončić.
Kessler thought he was brought in to complement the star’s offensive game as a roller and make the game easier for him by anchoring the defense. He never thought he’d have to match Dončić‘s level of defensive contribution.
“Incredible,” Kessler said. “Luka doesn’t get enough credit for his defense. He’s a very high IQ individual when it comes to being on the court. His positional defense is being in the right spot at the right time, and it is really good and it showed tonight.
“[When] all the players see a guy like him, who’s a savant on the offensive side, be so good defensively, it gets to the guys. It hypes them up to play better defense. So, yeah, it was incredible.”
Dončić put up averages no one in NBA history has replicated in the two seasons he was high in the MVP race (‘23-24 and ‘25-26), but he was never truly in the conversation. He’s dealt with this his entire career.
Defense has been the main excuse used to rule him out of the award race. This year, the Lakers are a plus-87 with Dončić on the floor. And guess what? He’s playing on both ends of the floor now.
It’s still very early, but this is what an MVP looks like.
You can follow Connor on Twitter at @cmorenoNBA.
