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Do IT this week: Layering
MVP award unlikely without more wins
By Brian Windhorst
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Monday, Jan 14, 2008
CLEVELAND: It has been said and written many times recently that LeBron James is having the best season of his career.
The Cavaliers are barely keeping their heads above water, heading toward the midpoint of the season at just a game above .500 at 19-18. Based on that trend, it would be a hard sell for James to win the league's Most Valuable Player award because voters usually weigh the team's record heavily.
No player on a team with less than 50 wins has received the MVP since Moses Malone of the Houston Rockets in 1982. The Cavs would have to finish the season 31-14 to get to 50 wins and match their record of the previous two seasons.
Nevertheless, James' performance has never been better.
Want proof? Count the ways:
Scoring
James is leading the NBA in
scoring at 29.1 points. He has reached that average despite never having taken 30 shots in a game this season. His offseason work on shooting has not helped his 3-pointers. He's shooting a career low 28 percent on them, which makes this next number all the more remarkable. He's shooting a career-best 48 percent overall from the field, which speaks to the development of his midrange jump shot.
This is part of the reason he leads the NBA in efficiency, which measures positive stats like field goals made, assists, rebounds, steals and blocks against negatives like missed field goals, missed foul shots and turnovers.
Rebounding
James is averaging a career-best 1.7 offensive rebounds and a career-best 6.1 defense rebounds, which explains his career-best 7.7 overall rebounding average. He's coming off a 19-rebound game Friday against the Charlotte Bobcats, which was a career high.
Hands on the ball
James is averaging 7.5 assists, which is a career high, and a career-best assist-to-turnover ratio. He is averaging 1.1 blocks, which is, again, a career high. James is also averaging two steals, which ranks him 10th in the league, and is the most since he averaged 2.2 during the 2004-05 season.
Clutch play
James has led the Cavs to 11 come-from-behind wins in the fourth quarter so far. He leads the NBA in fourth-quarter scoring at 9.5 points. In the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime, with neither team ahead by more than five points — called the ''clutch play'' stat in the NBA — James' field-goal percentage on jumpers leaps 10 points, from 38 percent to 48 percent. His percentage on shots inside the paint goes from 66 to 71. His free-throw percentage jumps from 70 to 80. During those situations this season, James has 18 assists and just three turnovers. When he's been on the floor in ''clutch play'' times this season, the Cavs have outscored their opponents by a total of 80 points.
Key to wins
All of it has come in the fewest minutes he's played since his rookie season and even that number is skewed because the Cavs have played six overtime periods.
But this perhaps is the most telling stat of them all: When James finishes the game, the Cavs are 19-12; when he's out for the whole game or a half, the Cavs are 0-6.
Brian Windhorst can be reached at bwindhor@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/cavs/.
CLEVELAND: It has been said and written many times recently that LeBron James is having the best season of his career.
Get the full article here.
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