NBA 🏀

Yup. Go Lakers!

Warriors really do not look good right now, but with Spurs all succumbing to injury at a horrible time (who knows what will happen with LA? ) it looks like they might actually cling on to that home court advantage. The east has to be pretty happy, though Cleveland's own collapse is sure something.

Stephen Curry is the bane of OKC's existence.

Nah, don't see them pass the Spurs in the second round. The Celtics could go far though.

Holy fuck! Devin Booker from the Suns scored 70! 

Harden is still the MVP though.

Pretty sure Harden gets a good deal of crap for his turnovers. And it's not like turnovers are the difference in an MVP race anyway.

By the way, how good was Vince Carter against Indiana the other night? What the hell is this guy eating in the morning?

Wow, Russell Westbrook ties Oscar Robertson for most triple doubles in a season at 41, and he will break that record. How should he not win MVP?

To me, it's pretty much just the triple double thing that makes Westbrook an MVP contender and I don't quite think that's enough. Yes, it's a great achievement and he's doing it in an era that has over 40 less shot attempts than Oscar Robertson (wanna note though that the way they counted assists back then was different and negatively affected assist totals), but it's a bit less impressive to me watching several of his games and seeing him lax on defense to look for rebounds that his bigs box out on so he can get them uncontested or seeing a good portion of his assists occurring only after he finds the rare shot he doesn't like since with him on the court OKC doesn't really have much ball movement. And then seeing the disparity in his statistics when he plays teams that are .500 or better just makes it look even worse. Westbrook has had some phenomenal games and especially some incredible highlights, but the triple doubles do not cover up some glaring issues with his game that winning teams are able to exploit. And the statistic some call out with the team having a 33-9 record when he has a triple double isn't that significant to me since he is fairly close to a triple double when they lose (31.9/9.7/8.6 in losses) and that assist disparity may be made up in part by him averaging a whole 2 extra shots (both are threes btw) in losses despite averaging 1 less minute.  What's more significant to me when it comes to how Westbrook's performance leads to the overall team winning are his shooting percentages (44.8/38.2 in wins, 39.6/29.7 in losses) and the aforementioned fact that he's shooting more in those losses despite how poorly he's shooting them.

Harden isn't an ideal MVP candidate for me either.  His defense or lack thereof for the most part is well-known, though he is putting forward more effort on that end.  Like Westbrook, he's also a turnover machine and his shooting stats on surface level don't seem that much better (though his 52.4% effective field goal percentage is significantly better than Westbrook's 47.4%).  However, Harden's handling of D'Antoni's offense has led to them having the 2nd best offensive rating and 3rd highest per game assist totals in the league with only himself as an all-star.  Harden's ability to generate free throws a.k.a. flop (averaging .57 free throws for every field goal attempt) is a major offensive boost and a legitimate game changer as the calls he gets can allow him to put points on the board in a short amount of time.  His overall numbers are very similar in wins and losses, with again the main disparity being his shooting numbers (45.1/37.7 in wins, 41.9/27.1 in losses) though his effective field goal percentage of 48.1 as well as true shooting percentage of 58.9 in losses are both well beyond Westbrook (44.4 and 52.9, respectively) so Harden is still putting forth a better effort in his losses to go with the fact that those losses are less frequent.  So, all that taken into consideration, I give the edge to Harden between these two though I think Kawhi Leonard would probably be my pick for MVP since he seems to have the most complete case in terms of numbers, team success, consistency, as well as having the defensive edge that neither Harden nor Westbrook provide.

Got all my numbers from basketball-reference.com.

Yeah, I find it stupid in general when teams whine about the opposing team after they just got blown out.  If something as minor and dumb as McGee shooting a three bothers you, maybe you should have played better D for the previous 47 minutes so that McGee doesn't get the chance to do that.

Harden very rarely flops, and refs actually miss almost as many calls as they actually do call on him. He is just a master at getting defenders to reach in. His defense is also not nearly as bad as youtube videos make it out to be. When needed, he can be an above average defender with flashes of greatness.

The media is going gaga for Westbrook and the triple doubles, but an MVP on a sixth seed is damn near unprecedented (I think the last time it happened was Moses Malone in the early 80s, but I could be wrong).

People have brought this up a million times already, but I'll say it again. In 2014-15 Harden had a better season statistically than Curry, but Curry's team had the better record so he won. If Westbrook wins over him, it won't make much sense. Rockets were projected to be a fringe playoff contender and Harden has carried them into the third best record in the league.

And one stat for the road.... Harden needs 5 assists to become the first player in NBA history with 2,000 points, 900 assists, and 600 rebounds in a season. But sure, give it to Westbrook because Harden is 1.9 rebounds away from averaging a triple double.