The start of another week has rolled around, which means it’s time to tally up the stats for each of our MVP candidates for last week (Monday through Sunday). This week, several players have made significant strides both statistically and intangible-wise. Dwight has continued to play hard, despite the trade rumors buzzing at an all-time high last week. LeBron hit a clutch three at the end of regulation against Indiana, which always leaves people with nothing to say he can’t do. Wade stuck a fork in them, which is exactly what he’s expected to do by those who widely regard him as “Batman”. And Kevin Love has emerged as the undisputed champion of power forwards.
All these different things don’t show up on the stat sheet, but play an instrumental role in deciding our weekly MVP ladder. As the second edition of our weekly “Race To The MVP” Watch, today marks a new beginning.
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10. TONY PARKER – Last week: 32 ppg/6 apg/4 tpg
Last Week: No. 7, falling
Tony Parker torched Jeremy Lin and the Knicks for 32 points without one three-point attempt. They aren’t exactly the best defensive group in the league, but you can’t knock Parker for doing what’s expected of him. If the Spurs can keep winning and Parker can keep being the leader he’s been, his name will be brought up once voting begins. Only one game for TP this week, so not much to judge him upon. That’s the main reason he’s fallen down to 10th.
9. RUSSELL WESTBROOK – Last week: 24.3 ppg/5.3 apg/3.0 rpg
LW: 5, falling
Westbrook has been playing consistently as of late. However he hasn’t been shooting the ball as well. This week he went 6-20 in a win over Dallas, 11-21 in a blowout win over Pheonix, and 8-17 in a loss against Kyrie and the Cavs. He finally got back on track Saturday against Charlotte, shooting 10-14 with 23 points. His assist numbers dropped a bit but he’s still putting up substantial scoring numbers. This week, Westbrook falls four spots not because of diminishing play but simply because Howard and Love are playing at a higher level than him right now and are both the number one options on their respective teams.
8. DWIGHT HOWARD – Last week: 27.5 ppg/15.3 rpg/2.0 bpg
LW: 9, Rising
In anticipation of the trade deadline, Howard has continued to maintain his high level of play. The Magic went 3-1 last week, suffering a bad loss at Charlotte, but a great bounce-back win in Chicago against Rose & co. He’s been scoring and rebounding at a very efficient pace, putting together roughly 28 & 15 since last Monday. Clearly the trade talk has very little effect on Dwight’s play on the court. If you compare the way Dwight is playing now, to the way ‘Melo played in his weeks before leaving Denver, you can see that Dwight might not be too opposed to staying put in Orlando. He hasn’t done too much talking to the media (which is a double-edged sword). He isn’t playing for stats only. He’s playing to win. That’s what you have to admire about Dwight Howard at this stage in this year’s MVP race.
7. KEVIN LOVE – Last week: 30.3 ppg/16.3 rpg/1.6 apg LW: 10, Rising
K-Love has posted monster numbers in the month of March so far. He’s got five double-doubles in as many games, but these aren’t just the average Joe’s double-doubles. He torched LaMarcus Aldridge twice, first for 42 and 10 on the 3rd, and then last Wednesday for 29 and 16, which came just one night after giving Blake Griffin 39 and 17 in a one-point win over the Clippers. K-Love continued his hot streak against New Orleans on Saturday, putting up 31 and 16 in a losing effort. After completely dominating the only two players who are even close to competing with him as the league’s best young power forward. K-Love has proved to be superior at his position. Even though the front office is skeptical, we’ll see how the loss of Ricky Rubio impacts the team’s performance. As far as Love’s individual performances go, he’s kicking it into high gear.
6. KOBE BRYANT – Last week: 28.0 ppg/4.3 rpg/4.8 apg
LW: 8, Rising
Despite taking a great step forward, putting together a great performance winning at home against Miami last Sunday, nothing’s changed for Kobe Bryant in the past week. He’s still leading the league in scoring, but still playing down to his competition, shooting a ridiculous amount of shots and not making enough of them. After the home victory on Sunday against Miami where he finished 13-for-24 from the field with 33 points, he turned right back around and went 8-for-26 with 22 points in a loss at Detroit. Then he let Nick Young and Roger Mason hold him to 9-for-31 shooting with 30 points in the Lakers first loss to the Wizards since ’06. Then Kobe went 11-for-26 and 9-for-20 in the following two nights in a couple of three-point wins. For me to really consider Kobe as a real threat to win the MVP, he has to stop playing down to his competition and start shooting a better field-goal percentage. However he’s still doing exactly what the Lakers need him to do to win games.
5. CHRIS PAUL – Last Week: 24.8 ppg/7.8 apg/4.0 rpg
LW: 4, falling
Chris Paul has adjusting well to his new scoring role with the absence of Chauncey Billups. This month he already has three games with 18-plus field-goal attempts, which is more than he had in the entire month of February. But he seems confused on whether he should distribute more, or score more. Last week they went 1-3 against some very middle-of-the-pack teams. On Monday they lost to Minnesota by one in a game where Paul went 5-for-14 from the field with 18 points and only five assists. Then they lost at New Jersey where he only took 11 shots but had 10 assists. The next game he went into do-it-all mode, scoring 36 points and dishing 11 assists at San Antonio in the only win they would grab this week. Then he followed that up by scoring 23 and only dishing five times against Golden State. So it seems as if he’s a bit unsure of what his team needs from him at this point. Regardless, a 1-3 run in the last four games isn’t going to help his MVP stock.
4. DWYANE WADE – Last week: 19.6 ppg/5.3 apg/5.0 rpg
LW: 6, Rising
D-Wade has continued to play big down the stretch in games offensively. He bounced back from his terrible afternoon in L.A on Sunday to have a pretty effective week. On Tuesday he only played 15 minutes but still had 13 points. He played 35 minutes in Atlanta and performed great down the stretch. Then followed that up with his clutch performance in Indiana, shooting 10-for-16 from the field and making a huge late basket.
3. DERRICK ROSE – Last week: 21 ppg/10.5 apg/4.5 rpg
LW: 3, maintaining
Rose bounced back from his back injury last month and proved he hasn’t lost a step. So far in March he seems to be back at full-strength scoring, distributing and most importantly winning. He hasn’t been shooting the best percentage, however his assist numbers make up for his poor shooting. He’s still getting the necessary buckets for the Bulls, as well as making his teammates better. On Monday he had 13 and nine against Indiana. He put up a near triple-double on Milwaukee with 30 points, 11 assists and eight boards. He had 17 and nine in a tough loss against Orlando, then bounced back to go for 24 and 13 against Utah. Add it all up and it looks like Rose is sitting tight in 3rd place for now.
2. KEVIN DURANT – Last week: 25.2 ppg/7.0 rpg/4.0 apg
LW: 2, maintaining
It’s been a pretty well-balanced week for KD. He’s been scoring consistently and has had some decent games rebounding the ball but no real eye-opening MVP front-runner games for him. His field-goal percentage has been decent, aside from going 10-for-27 in that blowout win over Pheonix on Wednesday. In a stretch of four home games last week, he had 22 against Dallas, 30 against Pheonix, 23 against Cleveland and 26 against Charlotte. 3-1 for the week, good enough to keep up with LeBron.
1. LEBRON JAMES – Last week: 26.3 ppg/9.3 rpg/4.0 apg
LW: 1, maintaining
Only three games for the Heat since last Monday, all home games, in which they came out victorious in each game. First, against New Jersey on Tuesday, LeBron put up 21 points, six assists and nine rebounds. Wednesday against Atlanta he doubled-up with 31 points and 11 boards. Then against Indiana, he had 27 points, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals with a clutch three at the end of regulation to send the game into OT. LeBron has easily been playing the most efficient basketball in the league (his league-leading PER of 32.67 is closing in on Michael Jordan‘s NBA record) and it doesn’t look like he’s stopping anytime soon.
What do you think of this list?
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