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What Luka Doncic has done during the Los Angeles Lakers' eight-game winning streak may prove valuable enough to garner him a first career MVP trophy later this spring.
Doncic has scored 327 points over the Lakers' past eight games -- an average of 40.9 per game -- as Los Angeles has solidified its grip on the three-seed in the Western Conference. The 27-year-old punctuated his recent dominant stretch of play by scoring a season-high 60 points on Thursday night, leading the Lakers to a 134-126 win over Bam Adebayo and the Miami Heat.
MORE: Bam Adebayo feels Luka Doncic's 60-point night confirms his 83-point night was challenging
That display marked a Lakers player's first 60-point game since Kobe Bryant in 2016. And it was enough for Lakers legend James Worthy to crown Doncic as the most "consistent and dominant" clutch player in the franchise's history.
"Historically, the Lakers have had clutch players," Worthy said Thursday on Spectrum SportsNet. "Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) with the sky hook, Magic (Johnson) with his play. Kobe, Shaq, (Derek Fisher) hitting 0.4 (against the Spurs in the playoffs). But I don't think we've ever seen one as consistent and as dominant as Luka Doncic, the way he controls the game with the ball in his hand."
James Worthy on Luka Doncic:
“Historically The Lakers have had clutch players. Kareem with the sky hook. Magic with his play. Kobe, Shaq. But I don’t think we’ve ever had one as consistent and dominant as Luka Doncic”
Doncic's inspired play has lifted the Lakers to 45-25 on the season. He is peaking at the right time, and to garner comparisons to Bryant, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar after 13 months with the franchise places him in rarefied air already.
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