{"id":7044,"date":"2018-05-03T14:07:02","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T14:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?p=7044"},"modified":"2018-05-03T14:07:02","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T14:07:02","slug":"top-four-nba-players-who-are-in-line-for-the-2018-mvp-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/top-four-nba-players-who-are-in-line-for-the-2018-mvp-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 4 NBA Players Who Are In Line For The 2018 MVP Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/nba-most-valuable-player-award.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7045\" \/>Competition for NBA players has gotten much fiercer than ever. The 2017-2018 season showcased that team play is needed, but, skilled players are really crucial in winning games. The race to winning the <strong>MVP award<\/strong> is on a fastlane making the award more prestigious than ever. <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/sports-betting\/basketball\/nba\">2018 NBA Season is coming to a close<\/a> and its once again time to talk about which players impressed the most for their spectacular performances on the court. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) is one of the most prestigious awards in the NBA and winning the MVP award does not only validate one\u2019s talents and dedication to the game. Players can also be named in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoophall.com\/\">Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame<\/a> in the future.<\/p>\n<p>With top performances throughout the season from players like <strong>James Harden, LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook (current)<\/strong>, there is a close race as to who will be crowned this season\u2019s MVP. We take a quick look at some of the top contenders for the MVP award.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ESPN<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/66NjRlfxr8I?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0?ecver=2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Players Who Qualify For The 2017-18 Season MVP<\/h2>\n<h3>James Harden<\/h3>\n<p><strong>2191 points, 389 rebounds, 630 assists, 126 steals and 50 blocks <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This year might really be James Harden\u2019s year. After leading the <strong>Houston Rockets<\/strong> to a league-leading 65 wins, his claim to the MVP award is definitely in reckoning. His 30.4 scoring average reflects that he is the hardest to guard in the league and ends up almost scoring at will to give his team the upper hand.<\/p>\n<h3>LeBron James<\/h3>\n<p><strong>2251 points, 709 rebounds, 747 assists, 116 steals and 71 blocks <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>King James is in his 15th season and he isn\u2019t slowing down. In fact, he has outran, outpaced, outshot and outplayed just about every player he played against this year. His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/can-lebron-james-deliver-another-stellar-playoff-series-performance\/\">brilliance and dominance of the game saved Cleveland<\/a> from its internal issues. LeBron James is clearly one of the front runners to win the MVP award this year after scoring the most points in the league so far.<\/p>\n<h3>Anthony Davis<\/h3>\n<p><strong>2110 points, 832 rebounds, 174 assists, 115 steals and 193 blocks <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He might be a surprise MVP candidate for some but the big man from the Pelicans has the stats to prove that he is right up there with the best this season. Anthony Davis entered the MVP conversation after <strong>DeMarcus Cousins<\/strong> went down with a season ending injury. Davis might be the best two-way player in the league now with his league-best 193 blocks.<\/p>\n<h3>Russell Westbrook<\/h3>\n<p><strong>2028 points, 804 rebounds, 820 assists, 147 steals and 20 blocks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2017\/jun\/27\/russell-westbrook-nba-mvp-award\">Westbrook is the reigning MVP<\/a> but there are some who think that Westbrook does not have a real shot at defending his MVP title. However, Westbrook has done pretty well this season after averaging a triple double once again this year, something that no other player has ever done consecutively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Competition for NBA players has gotten much fiercer than ever. The 2017-2018 season showcased that team play is needed, but, skilled players are really crucial in winning games. The race to winning the MVP award is on a fastlane making the award more prestigious than ever. The 2018 NBA Season is coming to a close [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","category-usa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Top 4 NBA Players Who Are In Line For The 2018 MVP Award<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/top-four-nba-players-who-are-in-line-for-the-2018-mvp-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top 4 NBA Players Who Are In Line For The 2018 MVP Award\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Competition for NBA players has gotten much fiercer than ever. The 2017-2018 season showcased that team play is needed, but, skilled players are really crucial in winning games. The race to winning the MVP award is on a fastlane making the award more prestigious than ever. The 2018 NBA Season is coming to a close [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/top-four-nba-players-who-are-in-line-for-the-2018-mvp-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-03T14:07:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/nba-most-valuable-player-award.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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The 2018 NBA Season is coming to a close [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/top-four-nba-players-who-are-in-line-for-the-2018-mvp-award\/","article_published_time":"2018-05-03T14:07:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/nba-most-valuable-player-award.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Landon Wheeler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Landon Wheeler","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/top-four-nba-players-who-are-in-line-for-the-2018-mvp-award\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/top-four-nba-players-who-are-in-line-for-the-2018-mvp-award\/"},"author":{"name":"Landon Wheeler","@id":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d"},"headline":"Top 4 NBA Players Who 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