The Los Angeles Lakers are on a roll, and Magic Johnson wants the basketball world to take notice. After Luka Dončić put together one of the most jaw-dropping performances of the NBA season on Thursday night, the five-time champion and franchise legend took to social media to make his feelings very clear.
Magic Johnson Calls Luka Dončić ‘Most Unguardable Player in the NBA’ After Season-High 60-Point Night
Luka Dončić dropped a season-high 60 points on 18-of-30 shooting, going 9-of-17 from three and 15-of-19 from the line, as the Lakers beat the Miami Heat 134-126 to extend their winning streak to eight games.
It was the first 60-point game by a Lakers player since Kobe Bryant scored 60 in his final NBA game on April 13, 2016, and it left Johnson reaching for superlatives.
“Luka Doncic is the most unguardable player in the NBA,” Johnson wrote on X. “He scored a season high 60 points in tonight’s win against the Miami Heat. Luka has to be one of the top 2 or 3 players being considered in the MVP race.”
Johnson didn’t stop there, adding in a separate post: “The Lakers won their 8th straight game and they are playing their best basketball at the right time, just as the playoffs are approaching.”
LeBron James was no passenger on the night either, recording a 19-point, 15-rebound, 10-assist triple-double in a supporting role that Johnson was quick to acknowledge. The two combined for 79 points and 22 rebounds, giving the Heat no answer on either end.
The performance is part of a larger surge that has repositioned the Lakers as genuine contenders in the West. Over their current eight-game win streak, Dončić is averaging 40.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 7.4 assists, numbers that have made his MVP case impossible to ignore.
He has now scored 30 or more points in eight consecutive games and has a 51-point and a 60-point game in a Lakers uniform within the span of just a few weeks.
Johnson had already been building his case for the team before Thursday, declaring after the back-to-back wins over Houston earlier in the week that the Lakers are “contenders in the West,” pointing specifically to their defensive improvements as the reason why.
“It’s been a total team effort, starting with man-to-man defense, and their rotations and communication have been excellent,” Johnson wrote. “It says a lot about the great job JJ Redick is doing.”
The numbers support Johnson’s enthusiasm. Los Angeles improves to 45-25 with the win, holding the third seed in the Western Conference and posting a 9-1 record over their last ten games. Their defensive rating over that same stretch has improved to 110.8, eighth in the NBA.
It’s a significant turnaround for a team that ranked 20th defensively on the season. They have held the Houston Rockets to an average of 104 points across their last two meetings, a team that averages 113.8 points per game this season.
The Lakers’ next test comes Saturday against the Orlando Magic, followed by a road stretch that includes a marquee matchup against the first-place Detroit Pistons on March 23.
