Luka Doncic silently proving MVP voters wrong; leaves Jokic and SGA behind in playoffs
Luka Doncic received the least amount of MVP votes among the top three contenders.
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Luka Doncic is only among the MVP finalists to reach the conference finals.
Like every year, the analysts and talking heads were engaged in battles after the league announced the Most Valuable Player of the 2023–24 season. As Nikola Jokic won his third MVP, many were unhappy with the decision, as they found Shai Gilgeous-Alexander more deserving of the award.
The arguments took many interesting and outrageous turns. Shaquille O’Neal, the supporter of Gilgeous-Alexander, even released a diss track of Shannon Sharpe, who had Jokic as his choice.
The argument of Jokic vs. Gilgeous-Alexander went on for many days creating headlines every day and taking the limelight.
However, in this chaos, the “experts” missed out on one important name. Luka Doncic was also in the mix, but the star was completely overlooked because of the other two. Despite the star being third in the voting, there were close to no conversations about his incredible resume this season.
But Doncic is eyeing a better milestone than MVP, as he is the only one moving forward in the championship race. As Doncic himself ended the OKC Thunder’s season, the Denver Nuggets were sent home by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Luka Doncic was offensively superior than both of his competitions
As Jokic was averaging more in rebounds and assists, SGA supporters argued that Gilgeous-Alexander had more points per game than the Joker.
However, Doncic takes over both of his contenders in this category. While Joker averaged 26.6 points and SGA averaged 30.4 points Doncic was on top with his 33.9 points.
That is not all. Doncic is also the leader for most points scored this season in the entire league. The star had many games where he showed his incredible scoring abilities, including his 73-point game. Doncic never fails to surprise fans with his consistent offensive outings, as the star had a whopping total of 13 40-point performances this season.
However, the offense was not the only category in which Doncic was thriving. With his scoring, the Slovenian was also taking care of the other two categories.
The guard had one of the most unique records in the NBA, as Doncic became the first player in history to have six consecutive 30-point triple-doubles this season.
Qualified for the semifinals after almost facing play-in danger
The reigning champions have one of the best rosters in the entire league. Jokic has a good supporting cast that helped the team be one of the best in the Western Conference.
Denver had a 57-25 record which made it easy for the team to qualify for the playoffs. Similarly for Gilgeous-Alexander, the team’s success was a group effort as the OKC Thunder became the youngest team to secure the first seed.
However, the situation was not quite the same for Doncic. The Mavericks are currently at their best, but that was not the case for the regular season. Doncic lacked help as Kyrie Irving had been injured for a long time. In fact, Doncic’s teammates missed the most games among all playoff teams this year.
Hence, the team was in play-in danger as they were the 6th seed until the very last moments of the regular season. But the team dodged the play-in tournament and moved to the 5th seed, which is now headed to the Western Conference finals.
Luka Doncic has reached conference finals for the 2nd time in the last three years
Doncic had many records this season that did not receive the attention they deserved. The star’s stats this season were extremely similar to Russell Westbrook‘s MVP season, as he almost averaged triple-doubles. However, that was not Doncic’s greatest achievement this season.
Despite Doncic only being 25 years old, this is his second time in the conference finals. Doncic was in the 2022 conference finals without Irving by his side. Even though MVP is a regular season award, Doncic has outperformed both Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander.
Despite being overlooked by MVP voters and analysts, Doncic has made it to the semifinals. The 2nd runner-up has the chance to win it all and the final MVP after losing the regular season MVP.
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Satvika Deshpande
(381 Articles Published)