Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Claims NBA MVP Frontrunner Status as Luka Dončić's Season Ends in Oklahoma City

Luka Dončić re-aggravated a left hamstring injury on Thursday in Oklahoma City and will not play again in the regular season. His representatives announced Friday that they intend to challenge his ineligibility for the award with the NBA and NBPA. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander entered Thursday as the heavy MVP favorite. Nothing that happened at Paycom Center changed that, but Dončić going down in the third quarter changed everything else. He grabbed the back of his left leg and didn’t come back, and Charania had the news Friday morning: season over, playoffs uncertain.

(Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images)

Dončić sustained the hamstring injury early in the game and was worked on at halftime after feeling something. He was cleared and came back out. However, after getting by Jalen Williams with a spin move to start the third quarter, he planted his left foot with nobody near him and went straight to the floor. The Lakers pulled him at 7:39, down 32.

He suffered an injury to the same leg on Feb. 5 in Philadelphia, causing him to miss 11 games that time, and he came back looking like he was managing it more than running free. Now, he’s out for the regular season with his playoff availability unclear as a result of a hamstring that’s been injured twice.

The playoffs start April 18.

Dončić’s Path Is Not So Clear

Dončić has played 64 games. He needs 65 to qualify for MVP, All-NBA, any of it. With his regular season finished, there is no path back to that number unless the NBA and NBPA create one — and on Friday morning, his camp announced it intends to push for exactly that.

In a statement distributed by ESPN’s Shams Charania, agent Bill Duffy of WME Basketball said Dončić’s representatives plan to pursue an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” to the 65-game rule. The core of the argument: Dončić missed two games in December when his daughter was born in Slovenia on Dec. 4. He was back competing in the United States on Dec. 6. Duffy wrote that Dončić “has gone to great lengths to show up for his team and this league this season” and that the camp looks forward to working with the NBPA and the league office “to ensure a fair outcome in this matter.”

Statement from Luka Doncic’s agent Bill Duffy of WME Basketball: “This season, Luka Dončić has performed at a historic level, leading the league in scoring, carrying the Lakers to third place in the Western Conference and placing himself in the middle of one of the most tightly… https://t.co/bKVOmzheDE

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 3, 2026

The CBA has no “extraordinary circumstances” established. Granting the challenge means the league invents a process on the fly. There’s a separate exception requiring 62 games played and 85% of the team’s schedule at the time of a season-ending injury. Dončić is at 83%. There’s another mechanism at their disposal, requiring a jointly appointed physician to determine that he is unable to play through May 31. It would need to qualify as season-ending under the CBA.

One angle on the appeal will include two games Dončić missed for personal reasons, stemming from flying overseas for his daughter’s birth. Whether the NBA sees a compelling or a creative argument is a different question, considering Dončić would have reached 65 games had he not been suspended for exhausting the league’s limit of 16 technical fouls in a season.

SGA the Clear MVP Favorite?

Oklahoma City defeated the Lakers 139-97, while Gilgeous-Alexander racked up 28 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists in three quarters, and only turned it over once. The Thunder were up 23 at halftime and never looked back. It was the kind of game that ends the MVP conversation.

ESPN’s final straw poll was released on Friday, featuring Gilgeous-Alexander as a runaway favorite to win MVP, earning 88 of 100 first-place votes and 958 total points. Victor Wembanyama had 8 first-place votes and 644 points. Nikola Jokić landed third at 500. Dončić ranked fourth, earning six second-place votes, zero firsts, and 347 points total.

Last night, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 28 points and now needs 48 points over the remaining five games to average 30 points per game for a fourth consecutive season.

He can become the fourth player in @NBA history to do so, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan,… pic.twitter.com/R4PUvPWBbx

— Crazy Stats (@NBAcrazystats) April 3, 2026

Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged 31.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 6.5 assists across 65 games. He’s shot 55.1% from the floor, 38.0% from three, and 88.1% from the line. Oklahoma City has a league-best 61-16 record.

The numbers aren’t the problem for Dončić’s case, considering he’s the NBA’s leading scorer and continues to make history. Through 64 games, he’s at 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists per night, shooting 47.6% from the floor, 36.6% from three, and 78.0% from the line. Six hundred points in March. The league scoring title. The Lakers are sitting third in the West. Whether the league’s eligibility ruling lets any of that onto a ballot is the only open question.

Wemby Makes His Own Case!

As it stands, Victor Wembanyama appears to be the only viable candidate in the mix with Gilgeous-Alexander. He is averaging 24.7 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 3.1 assists in 61 games while shooting 50.9% from the floor and 35.0% from three, converting 82.3% of his free throw attempts, and averaging 3.1 blocks per game. San Antonio has gone 26-1 across its last 27 outings and sits 2.5 games behind Oklahoma City for the top seed in the West.

If Wembanyama wins the award this season, he will become the youngest MVP since Derrick Rose, who won in 2011 at 22. Wembanyama turns 22 on April 4. He recently made his case to reporters when asked why he should lead the race, and that gave him a boost in the betting odds. The straw poll places him second in the race.

Wemby makes his case for MVP:

“My first one would be that defense is 50% of the game and that it is undervalued so far in the MVP race. I believe I’m the most impactful player defensively in the league. Second argument would be that we almost swept OKC in the season, and we… pic.twitter.com/hTOINJ5IWi

— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) March 24, 2026

Gilgeous-Alexander has held this race from the start, and Thursday’s result over the Lakers only added to his case. Wembanyama is the only player left with a realistic path to catching him, but time is running out.

LeBron James pointed to the extra week the Lakers get before the playoffs — no play-in, more rest — as a reason to stay optimistic. That week only matters if Dončić’s hamstring cooperates. The Lakers went 7-6 without him during the regular season — enough to stay afloat, not enough to suggest they can compete with the conference’s top seeds over a seven-game series.

Gilgeous-Alexander is going to win his second consecutive MVP award. That was true before Thursday’s tip-off, and it is true now. What the next 72 hours settle is whether Dončić’s season gets counted at all — and that question, at this point, is the only one left worth asking.