Sports
NBA MVP: Breaking Down Race Between LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo
Mark J. Terrill/Associated PressThe 2019-20 NBA season may be on hold, but there is still time to debate the Most Valuable Player qualifications of the two best players in the league. LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo have produced strong seasons, but only one can top the award voting whenever the season ends. James has propelled the Los…
Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press
The 2019-20 NBA season may be on hold, but there is still time to debate the Most Valuable Player qualifications of the two best players in the league.
LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo have produced strong seasons, but only one can top the award voting whenever the season ends.
James has propelled the Los Angeles Lakers back to the top of the Western Conference alongside offseason acquisition Anthony Davis.
Antetokounmpo has kept the Milwaukee Bucks in the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference, and they are currently in position to earn the conference's top seed and possibly home-court advantage in the NBA Finals.
Breaking Down MVP Race
LeBron James
Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press
James is in the rare situation in which he averages over 25 points per game and is his team's second-best scorer.
He is at 25.7 points per game, which is one point lower than Davis has averaged in his debut season with the Lakers.
The total is a slight decrease from the 35-year-old's first campaign in the Western Conference, when he averaged 27.4 points per game in 55 appearances.
The major difference between the current season and the four others in which James won MVP is his assist total of 10.6 per game. James has never averaged double-digit helpers in a single season.
Finishing on top of the conference is one of the similarities to his previous four MVP captures. In three of those seasons, James' teams earned the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
With Antetokounmpo playing so well for the best team in the league, an argument could be made that James needs to lead the Lakers to the top spot in the West to challenge for MVP.
James' critics will also point out he is achieving this success with another superstar thriving alongside him, which is something Antetokounmpo does not have.
The other knock against his MVP case is his top rival's position in a majority of the top stat categories.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Nell Redmond/Associated Press
Antetokounmpo ranks in the top 20 in field-goal percentage, points per game, rebounds per game and defensive rating.
The 25-year-old is well ahead of James in points and rebounds per contest, as he sits third in both categories.
The only disadvantage he has compared to James is assists, where the Lakers star leads the NBA.
Antetokounmpo's 29.6 points per game is a career best total, and he his shooting over 50 percent from the field for the fifth straight season.
He has also improved his three-point shooting, as he has gone from 25.6 percent to 30.6 percent on an average of two more shots from beyond the arc per contest.
In addition to all his individual accomplishments, Antetokounmpo has the Bucks on top of the East with the NBA's best regular-season record. They have four more wins than the Lakers.
If he finishes the season in the same form, Antetokounmpo could land his second consecutive MVP.
If that happens, he would join Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Stephen Curry and James as players to win back-to-back MVPs since 2000. James achieved that on two occasions in 2009 and 2010 as well as 2012 and 2013.
Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90
Statistics obtained from Basketball Reference
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