Why this MVP race is actually fun and a Celtics-Cavaliers classic seems inevitable

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The NBA Most Valuable Player hasn’t been decided yet — the way it should be with a little over a month left in the regular season.

Let’s be honest here. There was a point in recent years where the MVP discussion got really toxic, race got involved and it felt really icky — not that introducing race as far as voters’ preferences is so insulting, but the entire discussion got away from having great basketball at the center of it all.

Luckily that’s not the case between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and three-time MVP Nikola Jokić. Seemingly every night one of the candidates puts a strong mark in his favor for the award. Jokić’s historic 30-20-20 night against Phoenix on Friday night. Gilgeous-Alexander’s 40-piece against Jokić’s Nuggets two days later.

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It’s becoming appointment viewing in ways these teams usually aren’t — not that they aren’t good teams with compelling stories, not that the Nuggets haven’t been worthy champions still deserving of consideration to get back to the Finals this spring, or that Oklahoma City hasn’t been building from the ground up the last few years, ready to cash in this year. But Jokić shuns the praise and Oklahoma City hasn’t been great at marketing itself historically.

But even now nobody can deny we are witnessing one of the great MVP races in modern history.

(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

Jokić has been the win-shares-per-48-minutes king — a statistical model that has been the greatest indicator of MVP through history — and is having a career year across the board with the raw numbers. His win shares per 48 minutes are a career-high .316 and he’s averaging a triple-double for the first time in his career. His 28.9 points, a career-high. His 10.5 assists, a career-high. Ditto for his 43 percent accuracy from 3-point range — he’s shooting better from there than Stephen Curry, albeit on lesser volume, but he’s taking a career-high 4.5 triples per game.

Gilgeous-Alexander leads the league in scoring at nearly 33 points and drops in 6.2 assists per game…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/why-this-mvp-race-is-actually-fun-and-a-celtics-cavaliers-classic-seems-inevitable-195758609.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-03-11 19:57:00

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