J-Speaks: The Tight Race for MVP

It is spring time and that means nicer weather is on the horizon. Flowers are on the verge of blooming and the NBA Playoffs are just around the corner. This is also the time in which there is a lot of debate on who will win some of the major postseason awards. One of the most coveted honors in the NBA is the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award and this year’s candidates are very worthy ones. A point guard who has led his team to its best regular season in franchise history under a first-year head coach. A two-time All-Star whose play has covered up the laundry list of injuries to key players. An All-Star MVP whose has pulled his team back from the dead and is fighting for the last playoff spot in the West. A four-time MVP who returned to where it all began and has his team poised for a title run.

The first candidate for the 2014-15 MVP is Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, who is sixth leading scorer in the league averaging 23.6 points as well as in assists per contest at 7.7. He is also fourth in steals per game at 2.0 and is shooting 48.1 from the field, 43.4 from three-point range and 91.6 percent from the free throw line.

What has separated him from some of the other candidates is he has led the Warriors to their best season in franchise history at 63-14, which is the No. 1 record in the West and the entire NBA. They have the best home record in the NBA at 35-2 and the best road record in the NBA at 28-12. The Warriors also lead the league in point differential, which is why Curry on 19 occasions this seasons has sat out the fourth quarter because the Warriors took care of business in the first 36 minutes, especially at home. 

They won the first Pacific Division for the first time in 39 years and first-year head coach Steve Kerr achieved the most wins by a rookie head coach with 63 and counting.

Along with how the team has done this season, Curry has risen his game to great heights this season. He has become a complete player that has developed an incredible ability to score in a variety of ways while being able to get his teammates involved in the game.

Harrison Barnes, Marreese Speights and Draymond Green are having career seasons. That more than anything shows how Curry has made the rest of Warriors cast better.

That combination has allowed the Warriors to be not just one of the best offensive teams in the business, but one of the best defensive teams in the NBA.

Not far behind Curry in the MVP race is James Harden of the Houston Rockets (53-24), who has had the best season of his career.

His 27.5 points per game average leads the NBA. Harden is also averaging 5.7 rebounds, 7.0 assists, which is tied for eighth in league and he is fifth in steals at 1.92.

To put Harden’s stellar season into perspective, he leads the league in free throw attempts per game at 10.2 and in makes per game at 8.8. He has posted 10 40-plus point games and 33 30-plus point games, both lead the NBA and is the only player in Rockets history to post two 50-plus point games in the same season.

His stellar play has the Rockets not only in a battle not just for the No. 2 Seed in the West with the Memphis Grizzlies (52-25), which they occupy right now, thanks to a 115-112 victory at the Oklahoma City Thunder this past Sunday afternoon, thanks to Harden’s 41-point performance, but in the hunt for the Southwest Division crown. It was also the first time since 2008-09 that the Rockers have swept the Thunder in the regular season as they won all four meetings this season.

Harden’s play has put a mask on the rash of injuries to many key players on the Rockets this season as a total of 153 games have been missed by the likes of Dwight Howard, Donatas Motiejunas, Patrick Beverly, Terrence Jones and Kostas Papanikolaou. In fact, the main starting quintet of Harden, Howard, Trevor Ariza, Jones and Beverly have played just two games together this season. Just two games.

When Howard has played this season, the Rockets are 27-10. When he has been out because of a knee injury, the team is 26-14.

Three years ago when Harden was traded to the Rockets from the Oklahoma City Thunder, he wondered whether he could be become the best player on his team. He has not only become that this season, but he has become a top five player in the NBA and has the Rockets in a position to make a serious run in the playoffs for the first time in nearly two decades.  

The next candidate is not only having a career season, but has put up numbers that put him in the same conversation as Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson were putting up when they were on the hardwood.

Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder (42-35) is second in the NBA with 27.5 points per game, just behind Harden; 7.2 rebounds; 8.6 assists, No. 4 in the league and 2.11 steals per game, second in the league.

Over the past two months, the All-Star guard has been simply amazing. He averaged 31.2 points, 10.3 assists, 9.1 boards and 1.6 steals in February and 30.9 points, 10.2 assists, 8.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals in March.

Westbrook has garnered 11 triple doubles this season, nine of which have come since the All-Star break. Those 11 triple-doubles are the most in a season in the last 20. Future Hall of Famer and current Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Kidd tallied13 triple-doubles back in the 2007-08 season, which is the same number current NBATV/NBA on TNT analyst and 19-year veteran Grant Hill tallied back in the 1996-97 season. Kidd had 12 triple-doubles in 2006-07.

On seven of those occasions that Westbrook has garnered a triple-double, he has scored 30-plus points, which is tied with Robertson for the second most in the NBA in the last 50 years. Jordan leads the way with 10.

As mentioned earlier, Westbrook has nine of his 11 triple-doubles since the All-Star, which is tied with Hill for the most in the NBA in the last 40 seasons. The ninth came in a 115-112 setback to the Rockets this past Sunday when Westbrook tallied 40 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists. Jordan again has the most with 10.

Westbrook with his performance on Sunday joined Jordan and Robertson as the only players in NBA history to have scored 40 points or more in a game while garnering a triple-double on three occasions or more in a single season. Robertson did it four times in his career and Jordan did it back in the 1988-89 season.  

Like Harden, Westbrook has had to put up these out of this world statistics to help the Thunder achieve victories this season because a number of key players including last season’s MVP Kevin Durant have been on the shelf this season because of injury.

A total of 194 games have been missed by the aforementioned Durant, Mitch McGary, Jeremy Lamb, Westbrook, Andre Roberson, Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams and Anthony Morrow.

The Thunder thanks to the great play of Westbrook have a slim hold on the No. 8 and final playoff spot in the West leading the New Orleans Pelicans (41-35) by half a game.

The problem for the Thunder is that they have dropped their last three games and five out of their last six.

If this race were about who has had the best stats, Westbrook would have run away with this race very easily. Winning plays a major part in this equation.

Speaking of winning that is what the next candidate in four-time MVP LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers (50-27) have been doing over the past two and a half months.

They have gone 31-7 since starting the season 19-20, sitting in the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference and leading the Central Division.

Their 99-94 win this past Sunday versus the Chicago Bulls (46-31) was their 18^th consecutive win at home, where they have won by an average of 14.7 points. In that game, James garnered his first triple-double of the season and the 38 of his career with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists.

Along with the superb play of the third leading scorer in the league at 25.6 points per game along with 7.3 boards and 5.9 assists, the acquisitions of Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith and the improved effort at the defensive end have turned the Cavs from a pretender to a contender.

In their last 37 games, in which 30 have resulted in victories, the Cavs are allowing just 96.5 points on 44 percent from the floor, 33 percent from three-point range and they are beating teams by a plus 10.9. That is a far cry from the first 29 games when the opposition was averaging 100.1 points per contest on 47 percent from the floor, 35 percent on three-pointers and they were barely beating teams by a plus 0.3.

Without “King James” this season, the Cavs lost nine times in 11 chances.

Westbrook has put up the best numbers. Historical numbers to be precise. Harden has done the more this season with less and James returned home after helping the Miami Heat conquer the NBA and has been the driving force along with a stellar supporting cast put the Cavaliers back in the championship conversation.

With all of that being said, the MVP for 2015 is Stephen Curry because he has been the most consistent and the Warriors have the best record in the league.

One thing is for sure about this race. Each player has risen their game to a level that has put their team in a position to make a serious run in the postseason which is less than two weeks away. More than anything else though, each player has proved how one person can make a difference in winning and losing for their team.

Information and statistics are courtesy of www.espn.go.com/nba/standings/teams/statsistics; 4/4/15 3 a.m. NBATV’s “Gametime” with Rick Kamla, Dennis Scott and Vinny Del Negro; 4/5/15 12:30 p.m. ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” on ABC with Sage Steele, Doug Collins and Jalen Rose; 4/5/15 1 p.m. contest between the Houston Rockets versus Oklahoma City Thunder on ABC with Mike Tirico, Hubie Brown and Heather Cox; 4/5/15 3:30 p.m. contest between Chicago Bulls versus Cleveland Cavaliers on ABC with Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson and Lisa Salters; 4/6/15 2 a.m. NBATV’s “Gametime” with Rick Kamla, Antawn Jamison and Mike Fratello.