Leading the league in scoring, enforcing the special exemption for the 65-game rule, and yet, Luka Doncic still couldn’t add the MVP accolade to his resume. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Victor Wembanyama were the final three on the shortlist, and JJ Redick believes he knows why his Los Angeles Lakers star was left out.

“Disappointed, I think he deserved to be there, and I think, you know, all three guys that did end up being a finalist have a strong case. A lot of this, unfortunately, is media momentum,” said the head coach before Game 2 against the Rockets.

“Sometimes when a team, I guess we underperformed given that we didn’t have any expectations coming into the year. But I guess we underperformed for a couple of months despite him playing and getting player of the month one of those months. It’s just the media momentum never got built.”

JJ Redick was hinting at the situation in March when Luka Doncic was #2 in the MVP race. The Slovenian then dropped 32 points against the Pistons, followed by back-to-back 40-point games, but it only pushed him down to fourth again. That’s why the Lakers’ head coach is disappointed, as Doncic led the league in scoring at 33.5 points per game while adding 8.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds. The Lakers won 53 games and were fighting for the third spot until the last day of the season. Ultimately, they settled for the fourth seed in the West, a result shaped by the team’s stretches of inconsistency.

An early sciatica injury to LeBron James saw him miss the first 14 games of the season, during which Doncic led the team to a 10-4 record. Midway through the season, their second-leading scorer, Austin Reaves, went down with an injury, and other role players also missed time. But Luka Doncic’s exploits remained constant. Despite this, for the first time since the 2014–15 season, a scoring leader failed to finish as a top-three MVP finalist. JJ Redick has seen this pattern before.

He pointed to examples like LeBron James losing MVPs during peak dominance or James Harden falling short despite historic scoring runs. The MVP race is not only about numbers, but it’s also about media narratives, team success, and sometimes voter fatigue.

Luka Doncic had the chance to reshape the narrative in a head-to-head matchup against SGA and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Instead, he suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain, and the Lakers lost to OKC by 43.

Because the accolade is often decided by defining moments, the Oklahoma City game worked against him. The moment in OKC was not for the Lakers star, not for his MVP case, and now even his postseason run is under threat.

JJ Redick on Luka Doncic’s return

Doncic traveled to Spain shortly after the diagnosis for advanced medical intervention, including multiple injections aimed at accelerating hamstring healing. Ahead of Tuesday’s important game, JJ Redick offered pessimistic updates regarding the availability of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves for the current Round 1 series.

Austin Reaves (oblique) has started some on-court work, while Luka Doncic (hamstring) will begin his return-to-play progression soon. Still, the timeline of return for both Lakers stars remains indefinite.

“There’s no update on the timeline for either player,” Redick said in his pregame speech. “Austin has started his return-to-play process, but there’s still no timeline for him. Luka is expected to begin some on-court work soon, but again, there’s no update on his timeline.”

Shams Charania of ESPN had reported that Reaves could rejoin the Lakers at some point in the first round against the Rockets after beginning his 1-on-1 on-court work. While Redick acknowledged the progress, he remained uncertain about the exact return timeline. For Luka Doncic, the expectation is that the Slovenian superstar may miss the opening round entirely. Despite leading the league in scoring, his stellar campaign now risks ending in an unceremonious fashion.