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LeBron James, Giannis Antetokpounmpo gain separation on NBA MVP Ladder 2.0

By Phil Watson

Giannis Antetokounmpo Milwaukee Bucks LeBron James Los Angeles Lakers. Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images).
Giannis Antetokounmpo Milwaukee Bucks LeBron James Los Angeles Lakers. Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images). /
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NBA MVP Houston Rockets James Harden
Houston Rockets James Harden. Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Cato Cataldo/NBAE via Getty Images) /

. Previous: . James Harden. 3. player. 169.

Last season, James Harden scored at a pace exceeded by only two players in NBA history — Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan. This season, he’s doing his best to leave Jordan in the dust.

Over the Houston Rockets‘ last 12 games, Harden is only scoring 38.7 points per game. That’s all. Nothing big. He’s also putting up 7.2 assists, 5.6 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.0 blocks in 38.6 minutes per game over that span. shooting 45.8 percent overall, 37.5 percent on 14.0 3-point attempts a night and 90.2 percent on 11.0 foul shots nightly.

The Rockets are leaning heavily on Harden, particularly without injured Eric Gordon, who hasn’t played since Nov. 11 after having knee surgery. But Harden’s free throw attempts have been off for much of December. After taking double-digit attempts in Houston’s first 20 games, Harden has taken 10 or more foul shots just twice over the last eight games.

For the season, Harden is at 38.5 points, 7.5 assists, 5.8 rebounds and 1.9 steals in 37.7 minutes per game, with his shooting splits at 44.5/36.2/87.9, taking 13.8 3s and 13.0 free throws per game respectively.

He’s definitely on pace to win a third consecutive scoring title and is solidly in the mix for a second NBA MVP award to go with the one he captured in 2017-18. He leads the rest of the NBA in scoring by 6.7 points per game — which is same gap between second and 14th among the league leaders.

Harden also leads the NBA in 3-point makes and takes (the latter on pace to break his own single-season record of 1,028 set last season; he is currently on target to shoot 1,133 times from behind the arc), ranks fifth in steals and seventh in assists. On the advanced side of the ledger, Harden leads the NBA in VORP and is third in win shares per 48 minutes.