MIAMI (AP) — Luka Doncic stepped to the foul line in the final moments and couldn't help but hear what the crowd was yelling, over and over and over again.
An MVP chant.
On the road, no less.
"I think every player wants to hear it," Doncic said. "I got a lot of goosebumps, so it was pretty special.”
The cheers in Miami were certainly warranted, after Doncic — the NBA's scoring leader — put together one of the best games of his life, a 60-point masterpiece
that helped the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat 134-126.
He's now 1.9 points per game ahead of Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the scoring race, is averaging 37.2 points per game in March, is averaging 35.1 points per game since the All-Star break. He's hitting his best stride and it's no coincidence that the Lakers — now winners of eight straight — are doing the same.
“It became just an incredible display of shotmaking, drawing fouls, etc.,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We just probably weren't active enough to get the ball out of his hands. ... We didn't get to enough stuff to keep him at least a little bit off-balance.”
Doncic's final numbers from Thursday night, done on the same court where Miami's Bam Adebayo had his 83-point game against Washington earlier this month: 18 for 30 from the field, 9 for 17 from 3-point range, 15 for 19 from the line, with seven rebounds and five steals in there as well. Oh, and it should be noted that it was on the second night of a back-to-back, one where the Lakers played in Houston on Wednesday and didn't get to their hotel in Miami until 5:10 a.m. on Thursday.
“It was a superhero performance,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
It tied the second-most points Doncic scored in a game, behind a 73-point night against Atlanta in 2024 and matching a 60-point night against New York in 2022 — both of those efforts coming when the Slovenian superstar played for Dallas.
Doncic also broke the scoring record for a Heat opponent, topping the 58-point effort from James Harden for Houston on Feb. 28, 2019.
Coaches always root for their own guys in award races, and rightly so. It shouldn't surprise anyone that Redick thinks Doncic should win MVP. But he's been openly wondering why Doncic — who has never finished higher than third in the MVP voting — isn't talked about more as a top contender this season, if not the very top contender.
And that was before Doncic had his 60-point outing Thursday.
“I think he’s playing as well as anyone in basketball," Redick said. "He’s really elevated his play at a really important time for our team. He’s elevated the play of his teammates. ... He's one of the best and should be in the M-word conversation. Hopefully, people will start talking about that because he’s having as good a season as anyone.”
BetMGM Sportsbook lists Doncic as the second choice in the NBA race — but a distant second behind Gilgeous-Alexander, last year's winner.
Doncic's night in Miami was so stellar that it overshadowed another record for LeBron James, who tied Robert Parish's all-time NBA mark for games played, and did so in a matchup where he had a 19-point, 15-rebound, 10-assist triple double.
James marveled at how easily Doncic made getting to 60 points look.
“It wasn’t even like he was trying to force his way to get it," James said. “I mean, everything came in the flow. Once he got hot in that third (quarter), obviously he had a red hand and he just kept it going and then made some big time plays for us in the fourth. ... Big time, big time, big time.”
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