Luka Doncic is hooping like he intends to run away with the MVP trophy. Making a point by scoring more points to start a season — 361 in nine games — than anyone since Wilt Chamberlain scored 472 in 1962.
Generational scoring run or the new normal? Could this historic meteor shower be the standard?
“I feel like that,” Doncic said, adding he thinks he can maintain his current 40.1-points-per-game tear. “But as long as we win, I’m good.”
And if he’s this good when the playoffs roll around, this undeniable, brushing off elite defenders Toumani Camara and Jrue Holiday en route to 53 points in Friday’s 124-118 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, then the Lakers could totally go on a Luka Magical run and win it all.
But if Doncic is not this good, the Lakers aren’t 8-2 right now, and they’re not sitting in first in the Western Conference standings out of the gate … with 72 more games to go.
There’s ability, there’s inevitability, bankability.
And then there’s sustainability.
The Lakers are going to need to employ some serious conservation measures to get this version of Doncic — whose seven consecutive 35-points or better games put him on par with Elgin Baylor and Kobe Bryant as the only Lakers to stack so many in regular-season history — to the starting line that matters.
They need to write to Santa Claus and ask for a serviceable backup center. They need Austin Reaves to really rock and roll with the units that don’t include Doncic — who has the highest plus-minus and the highest on/off rating in the NBA — and to keep his turnover tallies low. They need to not just beat but blow out bad teams, to give Doncic a fourth quarter off sometimes.
And they need coach JJ Redick — who boasted in September that the Lakers’ “naturally deeper roster” would result in a longer rotation — to trust the process.
Even if the amount of “my bad” from his backups costs the Lakers some regular-season wins, it will, on occasion, make more sense to punt than to go for it. Like when you’re readying a less-experienced, less-familiar team for future battles. And wanting to reduce wear and tear on your engine.
A proven power-lifter, the 27-year-old Doncic is this season handling the heaviest workload (39.8% usage rate) in the NBA and in his career, while logging 35.9 taxing minutes per game.
He’s being challenged, pressed and trapped. He’s accelerating and decelerating and accelerating again. He’s charge-taking, pump-faking, piling up hoops-and-harms. Manipulating defenses and defending like he’s taken some slander personally. Arguing with officials and heaving vibey buzzer-beaters from all over the building, including a 61-footer that completely altered the complexion of Friday’s game, giving the Lakers momentum for the first time entering intermission.
And, no, he doesn’t need to play heavy minutes to prepare to play heavy minutes in the playoffs. He also doesn’t need to be wrapped in bubble wrap, but ideally he’d ramp up for the anchor leg instead of sprinting for the full marathon.
Remember what happened last season, after Doncic set the league on fire in March, averaging 37.5 points per game as the Lakers went 15-2 and announced themselves as challengers? He suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain on April 2 that sidelined him for the rest of the season and doused the Lakers’ hopes.
And look around now; the league is a cautionary tale of the tape. Anthony Edwards, Chet Holmgren, Ja Morant, Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Williams are among the stars who’ve been lost to injuries.
The Lakers — who are starting the season by playing four weeks without a single two-day break between games — don’t want to be included in the discussion about what’s ailing the NBA’s highest-usage talent this season.
It might be that the game has evolved to become more grueling, that teams are averaging more possessions per game, that possessions are shorter and that defenders are picking up ball-handlers sooner.
But it’s not, Portland coach Micah Nori said, because guys aren’t in shape: “They all have individual trainers, and they all work extremely hard, and they put in a lot of time — essentially 12 months out of the year. Back in the day, no disrespect to those guys, but that’s why training camp was so long, because they needed training camp to get back in shape. And so now they’re never out of shape, and I don’t know if that has any bearing … but that’s the only difference I see.
That includes Doncic. “He is the best shape I’ve ever seen him in,” Nori said, proclaiming the Lakers’ star his (way-too-early) favorite for MVP.
Forget about that, though.
Shohei Ohtani being dead set on chasing the Cy Young Award killed the Dodgers’ chances at a three-peat. And Doncic doing too much and earning his first MVP honor wouldn’t do anything for the Lakers’ championship chances if he’s spent by the time the postseason starts.
He’s much too valuable for that.
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