The first round is nearly over, with 2 series finished and six closing this weekend, so which players are currently on track to earn the Finals MVP award that has belonged to LeBron for the past two seasons? Here are my top 10 players who are still alive in this postseason (although no Bulls or Bobcats would have made it anyway), with spacing between players indicating a gap in relative performance.
1. LeBron James - MIA - 30.0 P, 8.0 R, 6.0 A, 2.3 S, .557 FG, .350 3P, .795 FT
2. LaMarcus Aldridge - POR - 29.8 P, 10.8 R, 2.0 A, 3.2 B, .500 FG, .775 FT
3. Russell Westbrook - OKC - 25.3 P, 9.7 R, 6.7 A, 1.5 S, .356 FG, .864 FT
4. Dwight Howard - HOU - 26.0 P, 14.2 R, 1.6 A, 3.0 B, .545 FG, .642 FT
5. Paul George - IND - 22.8 P, 10.7 R, 4.8 A, 2.5 S, .454 FG, .462 3P, .816 FT
6. Kevin Durant - OKC - 29.3 P, 9.8 R, 3.7 A, 1.7 B, 1.0 S, .412 FG, .778 FT
7. Damian Lillard - POR - 25.6 P, 6.4 R, 7.4 A, 1.0 S, .450 FG, .459 3P, .867 FT
8. Blake Griffin - LAC - 23.2 P, 6.5 R, 3.2 A, 1.3 S, .523 FG, .711 FT
9. Paul Millsap - ATL - 20.2 P, 9.8 R, 2.7 A, 2.0 B, 1.0 S, .427 FG, .409 3P, .824 FT
10. James Harden - HOU - 25.4 P, 4.8 R, 5.8 A, 1.6 S, .347 FG, .868 FT
As leader of the only team to complete a sweep in the first round, LeBron is the man to beat once again this season, and though he probably lost the regular season MVP this year, he cares more about winning the Finals MVP, and he's playing like it so far this postseason.
LaMarcus Aldridge opened the playoffs with an amazing 46-point, 18-rebound performance to upset Houston on the road and steal home court, then scored another 43 in game 2, but he has cooled off lately, managing only 8 points in game 5, which allowed the Rockets to cut the deficit to 3-2 in the series. If Aldridge had played better, he would be #1 on this list and the Blazers would be on to the next round already.
Kevin Durant may have been the league's best player during the regular season, but in the playoffs he hasn't even been the best player on his own team. That would be Russell Westbrook, who is putting up over 25 points per game while grabbing nearly 10 rebounds a game as a point guard. The only problem is, his best games have all been losses for the Thunder, which is why he's only #3.
In Houston's game 5 victory over Portland, Dwight Howard had his worst game of the series, scoring only 22 points and grabbing 14 rebounds to go along with 3 blocks. If that doesn't seem like a bad game, that's because it isn't. Howard has just been that good this postseason, even raising his free throw percentage by nearly 10 percentage points.
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