The NBA got a very nice Christmas gift last week with the return of Luka Doncic from his sprained ankle. The Dallas Mavericks and Doncic picked up right where they left off, winning two of three games since rejoining the starting lineup. The Mavs were no match for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday, but that shouldn’t hurt Doncic too much in the MVP race. With Doncic back, we can now focus on the top three candidates.
I think at this point it’s pretty obvious that one of Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo or James Harden is going to end up winning the award. All three are having amazing seasons for playoff contenders. All three are putting up insane numbers. All three should be All-Star starters. DraftKings Sportsbook favors Giannis by a lot as the top odds to take home the award but I’m not so sure he should be that far ahead.
We saw him get exposed a bit by the Philadelphia 76ers and if he has more games where teams contain him and he gets frustrated, I think it could hurt his case. The thing is, the Bucks are going to just keep winning because their competition isn’t as strong in the East. The conference is more balanced, but there are only like 5-6 teams who can realistically beat Milwaukee on any given night. I think we’ll see as the season progresses that Harden and Doncic will close the gap on Giannis to win the award and it’ll be a tough decision for voters once the time rolls around.
It’s also worth noting before we take a look at the odds that a new player has emerged in the top 10: Jimmy Butler. The Miami Heat are fourth overall in the NBA and have won five games in a row. Butler is a big reason why, though he’d have to start putting up stupid numbers and push the Heat into the top 2 in the League to get into serious consideration.
Updated NBA MVP Odds, Week 11
Player | Team | Week 9 Odds | Current Odds |
---|---|---|---|
Player | Team | Week 9 Odds | Current Odds |
Giannis Antetokounmpo | Milwaukee Bucks | (-112) | (-125) |
Luka Doncic | Dallas Mavericks | (+550) | (+425) |
James Harden | Houston Rockets | (+500) | (+500) |
LeBron James | Los Angeles Lakers | (+650) | (+700) |
Anthony Davis | Los Angeles Lakers | (+1000) | (+1200) |
Joel Embiid | Philadelphia 76ers | (+3300) | (+3300) |
Nikola Jokic | Denver Nuggets | (+5000) | (+5000) |
Kawhi Leonard | Los Angeles Clippers | (+3300) | (+3300) |
Paul George | Los Angeles Clippers | (+5000) | (+5000) |
Jimmy Butler | Miami Heat | (+10000) | (+10000) |
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