Over the past two seasons, the NBA has been about as repetitive as a Die Hard sequel. LeBron James wins the MVP award, LeBron James wins an NBA title and LeBron James wins the Finals MVP. NBA fans have been left with nothing but two choices: either bask in the greatness that is James or continue to hate him for abandoning his team and city on national television.
But this year could be different. The threats seem to be increasing when it comes to Miami’s throne. The Indiana Pacers are wiser, more mature and understand they are on an Eastern Conference Finals Game Seven collision course with the Heat.
Over in the Western Conference, Kevin Durant has taken his game to nearly unheard of levels in an attempt to snatch the MVP award away from its overbearing owner. This year might not go according to script.
Last season, Durant finished as the runner up in the MVP voting. This year, he has increased his assists per game by over a full point while maintaining an impressive .512 field goal percentage and a .412 three point percentage. However, Durant has captured the basketball world’s attention with his scoring. Averaging just over 28 points per game last season, Durant has upped that average to 32.2 thus far and is currently on a scoring rampage of historical proportions. Durant has scored over 25 points in 39 consecutive games and is rapidly approaching the record of 40 set by Michael Jordan in the 1985-86 campaign. On top of that, he’s put together a streak of 12 consecutive games of 30 points or more in January and has had 10 games of 40 or more points thus far this season.
On March 4, James decided to remind everyone why he was the two-time defending MVP winner when he dropped a career high 61 points against the Bobcats. The next night Durant answered with 42 points.
Nevertheless, the MVP is not awarded to the player who can score the most points in a game or season but to the best overall performing player and the most valuable player to their team. James is the two- time champion because of his astounding statistical efficiency, which he has continued this season. James is averaging 26.6 PPG, 6.5 assists per game and 7.2 rebounds per game
while shooting over 56 percent from the field. Most seasons, those numbers are a shoe in for the MVP award but with the scoring onslaught Durant has provided this season, the MVP race will go down to the wire.
It should be noted that Durant has been without Russell Westbrook for a large portion of the season, which has required him to take over more of the scoring responsibilities. James has had the luxury of Dwayne Wade for most of the season and when Wade has sat out with knee injuries, we’ve seen James willing to take over the scoring load like in the aforementioned Bobcats game.
Understandably, it’s irrational to penalize Durant for stepping up and scoring in Westbrook’s absence but the point is that if James had spent much of the season without Wade, he could very well be on a similar type of scoring streak.
With all that being said, a honorable mention should be paid to Bulls center Joakim Noah, who has quietly put together a fantastic season worthy of MVP consideration. In a league devoid of James or Durant, Noah might very well be the MVP award winner. Noah averages 12.5 PPG, 11.1 RPG and
5.3 APG and has been the glue that has held the Chicago Bulls not only together, but also in the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference in yet another Derrick Rose-less season. Noah’s
ability to fill the stat line in congruence with Venue Information terrific defensive play should put him in third place in the voting.
As for Durant vs. James, the script will remain constant. It’s really anybody’s award and in this case the tie goes to the former winner. Durant’s time will come and when it does, we will see Durant write a script similar to James’s that will include multiple MVP awards, championships and Finals MVP’s. But that time is not now.
As for the 2014 NBA champion, that will be decided between the Pacers and the Heat. Whichever team edges out the other for home court advantage will go on to win Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals and go on to beat any combination of either the Spurs, Thunder, Clippers or Trail Blazers in the finals.
Nathan Krohn can be reached at nathan.krohn@spartans.ut.edu.