RST's Race to the MVP Week Three

The past few weeks in the league have been a mixture of high and low emotions. In a period of two weeks, we have seen a player retire and come back to the team that drafted him, a player go down with yet another devastating injury, and a superstar who finds himself as the bad guy in a situation you don't often see in basketball.

Greg Oden has been hit with his fourth straight injury in his young career. Each year he has shown signs of hope, but has disappointed many as he falls down with another knee injury.

It's pretty clear that he had elevated his game this year towards being the dominant player people were expecting him to be. Even if the stats weren't there and the fouls were still something of an issue—I believe he must be just about leading the league the last two seasons in ticky-tack and phantom fouls—his presence in the middle has been huge.

The reason not to panic is because Portland has a more than serviceable back up center in Joel Pryzbilla. It's a massive shame, on a personal note—I was really routing for Oden to have a break out year—he was doing so well, too.

But Portland will still be a damn hard team to beat.  You can't discount a team with Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge, and Andre Miller on your team.

Last season they were a sniff away from getting the second seed in the West. Why would they miss the playoffs this year?

I'd stay the course if I were them and get Oden back to full health as soon as possible (which appears to be next season). Joel and LMA can fill in just nicely. What a luxury it must be to have those two as the replacements.

Welcome back Allen Iverson. The Sixers needs a scorer who can opt in and out of his scoring whenever he wants. Iggy is a great scorer, but is someone who I see that cannot be relied on, especially on his outside game, in every situation.

Now, I am not saying Iverson can be relied on as heavily as he used to, but people have underrated his scoring abilities since the troubles of meshing with a team the past year-and-a-half.

But Iverson could easily become his somewhat old self in this situation. With Lou Williams gone and a team not known for their intense scoring, he has an opportunity to prove himself yet again. Eddie Jordan has already stated that he will start, this will boost his moral and maybe get him back into his old self.

I remember reading a piece written by Bill Simmons in which I strongly believe he summed up AI to perfection:

"One of the most fascinating, complex athletes of my lifetime: a legendary partier and devoted family man; a loyal teammate who shoots too much; a featherweight who carries himself like a heavyweight; an intimidating competitor who's always the smallest guy on the court; an ex-con with a shady entourage who also happens to be one of the most intuitive, self-aware, articulate superstars in any sport."

You don't often see players dance on the court when they're blowing out a team. Most consider it disrespectful and extremely unprofessional, but to LeBron James, it's amusing.

In a blowout against the Bulls, LeBron James went to the free throw line, with his team up by 20 points. With Chicago's center Joakim Noah watching from the sideline, LeBron had the idea of putting on a show for local Chicago fans, as he began to dance and show off.

I have to say that LeBron is extremely lucky he wasn't ejected from the game. That is to say not because of his dancing but the fact that after his free throw he walked over to the Bulls bench to try to engage Noah into a fight. As much as everyone is making a big deal over the dancing, I really think that's a bigger issue. If LeBron wasn't a super-star level player, no way does he not get ejected for that.

If LeBron were a real man, he would have let Noah run his mouth and just continued to pummel the Bulls. Instead he didn't act like the role model he's supposed to be and he tried to get Noah to bite back. Noah was the smart one here for not allowing LeBron to coerce him into a fight. I think LeBron could have dealt with the situation a lot better than he did. Granted, it could have been worse and luckily tensions didn't escalate any further.

1. Kobe Bryant, Lakers (16-3)

G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT%
19 36.6 28.8 5.3 4.0 2.3 0.2 .489 .292 .857
Last Week's Rank: 1

Just when you thought Kobe was coming back down to earth after an amazing start to the season, he hits a near impossible shot to win the game, extending the Lakers' win streak to nine.

Kobe is ultimately clutch—this was not a situation where the two teams are tied, and there's less on the line. The Lakers were on a winning streak, they were at home, they're the favorites to win the title, and they were down by two with just over two seconds to go. Granted it's the regular season, but Kobe is the man.

2. LeBron James, Cavaliers (15-5)

G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT%
20 37.7 28.2 6.8 8.1 1.3 0.7 .518 .333 .783
Last Week's Rank: 6

Is this man a PG? The past few weeks, he's been virtually unstoppable with the ball in his hands. In their win over the Bucks, the Cavs went on a 29-0 run.

I would love to see them exert that type of dominance for the remainder of the season. It would really make things interesting to see Boston and Cleveland in a seven-game series at the top of their potential.

I just think the Shaq trade will be for the better or pretty much purposeless. I don't think they will do anything long-term, but if they can play like this against relevant teams the East could get very interesting.

3. Carmelo Anthony, Nuggets (15-5)

G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT%
20 37.0 30.2 5.9 3.4 1.4 0.3 .489 .353 .869
Last Week's Rank: 5

A relatively quiet week for Melo, but he has regained his throne as the top scorer in the league and remains as the only player in the league to score over 20 points in each game this season. The Nuggets are currently the second best team in the West, and a large part of that is credited to Melo's stellar play.

4. Dwight Howard, Magic (16-4)

G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT%
20 32.6 18.2 12.3 1.5 1.3 1.8 .652 ---- .568
Last Week's Rank: N/A

I'm not a fan of players averaging below their normal expectations, but we've got to give credit where credit is due. Dwight Howard has been an absolute beast this past week, recording a 20-20 game against the Bucks, he has 10 straight double doubles, and is leading the Magic to the second best record in the league behind the Lakers.

5. Steve Nash, Suns (15-6)

G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT%
21 32.3 16.5 2.8 11.5 0.4 0.2 .523 .441 .944
Last Week's Rank: 3

Nash is still putting up his MVP type numbers, and the Suns have been playing well, all but the Hornets and Knicks loss's have been against top 3-4 teams on the second night of back to backs...And not to throw excuses around, but both times they gained momentum in the third and fourth quarter, refs called some questionable calls that took momentum out from under them.

6. Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks (14-7)

G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT%
21 38.1 27.0 8.4 3.1 1.1 1.5 .473 .350 .888
Last Week's Rank: 4

Who says the German can't play defense? Dirk looks like he's in his prime right now, averaging career highs in points, assists, and blocks. Sure, the Mavericks have other weapons, but it begins and ends with Dirk. If he's having a good shooting night, the chances of winning the game is high, if he's shooting poorly, the Mavs are a train wreck.

If Josh Howard comes back and stays healthy, I don't think Nowitzki will score more than 23-24 points (on a highly efficient shooting). If Howard continues to stay out of the starting lineup, Nowitzki is the only one who can create in the starting unit for himself, which would mean his scoring numbers would rise.

7. Kevin Garnett, Celtics(16-4)

G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT%
20 30.4 14.9 7.3 2.7 1.0 0.7 .552 ---- .827
Last Week's Rank: N/A

The Celtics are on a seven-game win streak, due to the emergence of Garnett, who appears to be back in shape and ready to make a huge impact on the Celtics. Over the last seven games, Garnett has not scored less than 16 points, but more importantly, he's been getting others more involved.

In the blowout in Charlotte, Perkins erupted for 21 points and 12 boards. Garnett is the difference maker for this Boston squad, and has been shooting very efficiently over the past few weeks.

8. Dwyane Wade, Heat (11-9)

G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT%
20 38.3 26.7 5.1 5.7 1.9 1.1 .427 .250 .763
Last Week's Rank: 7

In what was supposed to be the Nets' first victory of the season, Dwyane Wade hit a game winning three-pointer to win by one at the buzzer. He had an awful game, the first of what would be (and possibly still is), one of the worst slumps of his career.

Flash forward to the night of the Nets' first actual win. That night, Kobe Bryant hits a game winning three, to win by one, in Wade's face at the buzzer.

In between these two games (10-game stretch maybe?), Wade has played mostly terrible. Maybe two games where he looked good, but other than that, terrible. The first game after this loss for the Heat, was last night against Sacramento. Wade had 34 points on 10/16 shooting, 10 assists, four blocks. That's the Wade we need to see more of if he wants to raise his ranking.

9. Brandon Roy, Blazers (13-8)

G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT%
21 37.0 20.0 4.8 5.2 0.6 0.2 .443 .342 .800
Last Week's Rank: 8

Brandon's numbers are very consistent, and he's been playing at an extremely high level as of late. What Portland really needs is a SF who can not only finish at the rim, but wants to. If the Blazers had someone who could actually cut through defenses and keep them guessing, then their "problem" at point guard would also be minimized.

Right now there's no one on this team besides Roy (Bayless to a lesser extent, yes, but he doesn't have the full game nor size they need) who can do this. However, with both Miller and Blake on the floor, Brandon gets the ball above the three-point line and he's supposed to what, just blow past someone 20' to the rim? This team lacks that explosive wing, and with the injury to Oden, Roy will be forced to shoot more jumpers.

10. Joe Johnson, Hawks (14-6)

G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT%
18 38.5 21.4 5.5 4.9 1.0 0.0 .444 .286 .863

The Hawks hot start has disappeared, and they're falling back down to Earth. Joe is shooting consistently from the field, but his three point shot is falling down, and his role on the team is getting larger and larger each game. But he's still leading this team to the 4th best record in the East, and his numbers remain high.