“Not MVP-worthy according to the NBA, though”: Fans applaud Luka Doncic as his 52-point explosion against the Jazz sends a message to the league

Luka Doncic scored 52 points on Sunday night to lift the Los Angeles Lakers over the Utah Jazz, 132-123, at the Delta Center. Los Angeles trailed 47-29 after the first quarter, an 18-point hole, and still won. Doncic shot 17-of-30 and added 10 assists, eight rebounds and two steals in 38 minutes. He closed it with back-to-back threes late in the fourth. It was the first 50-point game by any NBA player this season. The win put the Lakers at 3-0, and replies online centered on his spot on an MVP ladder.Lakers erase 18-point deficit as Doncic drops 52 on JazzLuka Doncic had 17 of the Lakers’ 29 first-quarter points. It was not enough against a Utah team controlling the offensive glass, with Ace Bailey adding 15, most of them off offensive rebounds.The second quarter changed it. Utah’s defense got sloppy, Austin Reaves started drawing fouls and Doncic kept scoring. With nine minutes left the Lakers led 109-106. The final margin was nine.PlayerMINPTSFG3PFTREBASTSTLBLKTOPF+/-Luka Doncic385217-308-1810-1181020443Reaves finished with 29 points on only 12 shots, and the two went a combined 21-of-24 at the free throw line. Utah coach Will Hardy pointed there first. Cut those attempts in half, he said, and the result changes. He also accepted that Doncic makes hard shots, saying “that’s life in the NBA against the best players.” The Jazz gave the ball away 17 times as well.Bailey, 20, spent most of the night guarding Doncic. Hardy said the experience cannot be copied in practice. He also went to Josh Green, who had barely played through two games. Green got a little over three minutes in the fourth quarter with nine minutes left. In that stretch Los Angeles turned it over four times and made one field goal. The coach said it felt longer than three and a half minutes.Doncic has done this before. He scored 50 against Houston on December 23, 2022, in a 112-106 Dallas win, and 50 again against Phoenix on Christmas Day 2023, a 128-114 win in which he also passed 10,000 career points. Sunday moved him past LeBron James into sixth on the Lakers’ all-time list of 40-point games. It took him 95 games to reach 3,000 points as a Laker. George Mikan needed 106 and James needed 114.Fans question the MVP ladder after Doncic’s big nightReaction arrived fast. @smarti_mr kept it short: “Not MVP worthy according to the NBA though”. @ToysTwittapops pointed to a ladder with him sixth, posting “Luka falls to 6th on the MVP ladder” and tagging the league. @davidkimbrough2 went with sarcasm: “So he’s not the best player on the planet than who is ill wait”.Some posts stuck to the game. @YABUsayaf liked how it ended: “I like that the back-to-back threes were just the finishing touch on a 14-5 run, like he needed to sign his work before leaving”.The Slovenian superstar and the Lakers host the Portland Trail Blazers on TuesdayGet the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.