Rockets guard James Harden played like a man on a mission to win the league's MVP, at least on a game last Sunday, when they faced LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers. In fact, he'd been playing the entire season like he's defending the Most Valuable Player which James won 4 times (Last year's winner is Oklahoma City's hotshot Kevin Durant).
Harden pushed, prodded and kicked his way (literary and figuratively) to the top of the 2014-15 NBA MVP list. He grabbed the lead for the first time by curbing Golden State Warriors star point guard Stephen Curry, 50-49 points, USA Today reports.
Three other players trail James and Curry, which are Cavaliers' LeBron James, New Orleans' forward Anthony Davis and Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook.
According to NBA, Harden's game Sunday more ferocious and driven although there are games where he scored more, grabbed more rebound and dished out more assist, his game against the Cavs was a statement.
But the other players in the race are no push overs, before the 105-103 defeat from Harden's Rockets, the Cavs played Golden State and LBJ outscored Curry 42-18. James played without his injured point guard Kyrie Irving who is currently nursing a shoulder injury.
On the other hand, Harden is also playing without his center Dwight Howard who was sidelined due to knee injury. Although, Harden (33 points) scored less than James (37 points), but James fired more shots (18 baskets made against 53 attempts) to get to 37.
The five-man MVP race is the best in the last nine seasons, it since the 2005-06 battle that ended with Steve Nash's bagging his second MVP. This race is expected be a fierce battle since they only have six weeks to outwit and outscore each other.
Note: Harden received a 1 game suspension for kicking James in the groin during the game.