Will Luka Dončić’s possible injury ruin a deserving MVP campaign?

Welcome to Judgment Week.

The final games of the 2025-26 regular season are upon us and award races are heating up. Teams are vying for playoff positioning, others are loading up the tanks for one last hurrah and the league is preparing for a pivotal period. Thanks as always for the question submissions, let’s dive in …

If Luka Dončić had beaten Oklahoma City and played well, would it be enough for him to get the MVP award? I know it should be, but what do you think? — @Grumsi24

Dončić finished with 12 points on 3-for-10 shooting in 26 minutes in a 139-96 loss on Thursday. But the major plot point is that he left the game with a hamstring injury. 

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I think this is a good place to start. As we approach the final week of the regular season (that zoomed by, to be honest), the nature of online award discourse — particularly MVP — has reached nauseating levels.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m very much in favor of players taking full ownership of presenting their cases, like San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama grandstanding last month and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander keeping his reasoning short and simple. This has been one of the most exhilarating and engaging races in quite some time and we’re in a golden era of basketball.

Outside of that ecosystem, however, the online back-and-forths between team fan bases, non-biased third parties and even the general public has almost diminished the value of the award, desperately seeking any avenue to downplay a worthy candidate in favor of pumping up another. Needless to say, you won’t see any of that here. This is a question about the MVP and an answer based on basketball, not feelings.

Dončić’s case is straightforward: the NBA’s leading scorer on a 50-win Laker team, a top-3 seed in the ever-arduous Western Conference. He’s an ultra-efficient, heliocentric conductor of a top-5ish offense and the glue that kept Los Angeles together in a season where an aging LeBron James and Austin Reaves succumbed to the injury bug. But now, Dončić’s awards eligibility is in danger, pending the results of an MRI on his hamstring. Through 64…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/will-luka-doncics-possible-injury-ruin-a-deserving-mvp-campaign-152231558.html

Author : Kelly Iko

Publish date : 2026-04-03 15:22:00

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