The regular season in the NBA is very close to its end, but a lot of things still haven’t been decided – from home-court advantage in the playoffs to the MVP trophy. While the race for a playoff spot is fierce almost every year, the pursuit of the Most Valuable Player award hasn’t been so interesting since a long time ago. As the current season began, Stephen Curry and James Harden have been the favorites to win it, showing offensive brilliance and leading their teams in the Western Conference playoffs.
However, lately another three guys have joined the MVP talks and all of them are legitimate contenders to win it. Their names are Anthony Davis, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. The three of them have been in beast mode in the last couple of months, filling up stat sheets and surprising everyone.
To start with Davis, he is almost singlehandedly keeping the Pelicans playoff hopes alive, averaging 24.2 points, 10.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.5 steals and 2.8 blocks per game. He has lost some time due to injuries, but this even more solidifies his MVP campaign, as we’ve been able to see how important he is to New Orleans. The big negative here is the fact that the Pelicans most likely will miss the playoffs, while the teams of the other candidates are all title contenders.
To continue with the 4-time MVP winner, LeBron James – he is showing some magnificent form lately and thanks to that the Cavaliers have emerged as the alpha dogs in the Eastern Conference. The stats that he is averaging are 26.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.6 assists and 0.7 blocks per game. The King has also missed a significant amount of time due to injury, but in the last 2-3 moths he has been almost unstoppable, looking like the James we’re all used to. The main negatives to his MVP campaign are that he isn’t leading in any stat category and the amount of time he’s been on the sidelines is pretty big.
This brings us to Russell Westbrook, who’s played out of his mind lately, notching triple-double after triple-double. He’s been the main man for the Thunder and kept them in the playoff race without Kevin Durant in the lineup. The electrifying player is currently averaging 27.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 2.1 steals and 0.2 blocks per game. Pretty impressive for a point-guard, isn’t it? For a big part of the season’s beginning Westbrook was watching from the sidelines, but this shouldn’t be counted as a big problem, because since he’s been healthy the Thunder have gone from a lottery team to title contention.
Stephen Curry is our fourth candidate for the award and while the previous three guys are relative newcomers to the race, the Warriors guard has been the favorite since the start of the campaign. He’s averaging 23.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 2.1 steals and 0.2 blocks per game. While his stats aren’t very impressive compared to the other MVP candidates, Golden State have owned the best record in the NBA for a pretty big amount of time and they are also doing it now. Curry has been the biggest reason for that and that’s why he is one of the favorites to win the MVP award.
Last, but not least, is James Harden, who is playing the best basketball in his NBA career, leading the Houston Rockets in the tough Western Conference, while Dwight Howard is treating his injury. His stat averages currently are 26.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 1.9 steals and 0.8 blocks per game. Harden is arguably the best shooting-guard in the league right now and the Rockets are lucky to have him. The most impressive part of his MVP campaign is that he has been able to help Houston maintain the same level of play they have when Howard is in the lineup.
The MVP is more than fierce and it’s impossible to tell which one of these elite players will win it at the end of the regular season. They are all equally deserving, but only one will be called the 2014/15 MVP winner.
NBA News: The best MVP race in years!
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