But the biggest story at this moment is the NBA MVP race. I've boiled it down to four contenders, who I will rank up to the victor.
This choice for Rookie of the Year might be as hard as the choice for MVP. It's triple-Russell vs. the uber-efficient Harden, the latter of which boasts a better team. He has been consistently putting up the same numbers for the last 13 years and has won four MVPs awards.
Ryan Anderson and sixth man of the year candidate Eric Gordon both shoot above the 40% mark, and the Rockets averaging a staggering 40.3 attempts per game from beyond the arc, which is comfortably the most in the league. Here's what's working for him: he's the best player on the planet. This is the best time of the year.
Doug McDermott: 1 game, 4:32 minutes, 1-of-1 FG, 1-of-1 3-pointer, 1 rebound, 0 assists, 3 points, minus-6.
JOHN YANG: We will see starting this weekend. "Something that we can talk about later on down the line". "How this series unfolds and who is playing and what group of guys give us the best opportunity night-in and night-out, we'll see how things unfold". And even though Durant's been out, he's back now, and so they haven't - they didn't miss a beat when he was out. That LeBron has done this at the age of 32 is remarkable, considering that only four other active players have logged more minutes than him.
Sunday, Westbrook, a smaller, more graceful version of LeBron James, broke the triple-double record of 41 in a season held by legendary great, guard Oscar Robertson, set in the 1961-'62 season. That's what we all know. Trying to put leverage over Westbrook, he said (and I paraphrase) 'wins'.
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The Thunder certainly can't be counted out, given the way Westbrook has carried them all season long.
Roberson, who had been a menace to Harden, got into foul trouble early, which disrupted his rhythm and forcing him to change his strategy. Maybe not as good, but still competent.
Leonard has had a spectacular season. And that's particularly impressive for a Spurs team that lost a Hall of Fame center from past year in Tim Duncan. If the Thunder can take Game One on the road, it will get them a quarter of the way towards winning the series. I thought winning is what this is about-period. Danny Green is a perfectly acceptable starting shooting guard, but Tony Parker has plummeted to the bottom of the starting point guard ranks in the National Basketball Association. But, the defense has been as formidable with Kawhi off the floor, and the Spurs are deep enough to be a solid team even with Kawhi out. I think it's very possible. So that leads us to...
Harden, who along with Westbrook is a front-runner for MVP, went to the bench, and both teams cleared their benches soon after that. The Cavs have the best odds coming out of the East to win the Finals, second in the National Basketball Association to their Western Conference foes, the Golden State Warriors. Abrines has played well against the Rockets, though Billy Donovan sat Abrines for the second game, in December.
But the reason Harden is the MVP is what's going on in the standings. He's played in 51 first-round games. They've overshot expectations in a big way, with Harden taking a group of ragtag guys that were injury liabilities and blended their strengths into his strengths.
After trading James Harden just seven months before the series started, Harden led the Rockets to the No. 8 seed in the West to face the No. 1 seed Thunder. The most recent of these battles occurred two years ago when the Rockets were summarily dismissed by Steph Curry's Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.
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