Feb 14, 2013; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) handles the ball against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) during the first half at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James was asked about the Oklahoma City Thunder and Russell Westbrook and he had some nice things to say.

LeBron on OKC: “You can’t replace Russell Westbrook. He’s an Olympian and if he continues on the path he’s on he’s a future Hall of Famer.”

— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) May 17, 2013

Calling a player a future Hall of Famer is about as high of praise you can give someone. And it may be appropriate praise for Westbrook with all he has done so far in his career.

We’ve already examined last week just how good and valuable Westbrook is in the current makeup of the league. You can easily make the case that he is a top five player and in a year or two from now may even be a top three player.

So the Thunder are in good shape. They may have lost James Harden and this season ended way sooner than most anticipated but going forward in this league with two top five players and the flexibility to build around them is a lot better than what most teams have going for them.

Back to LeBron though. Why he is such a nice guy? He doesn’t say anything wrong at all ever. Skip Bayless would say this is his way of befriending his rivals to weaken them. Maybe it’s some of that but I don’t know. Point is, LeBron never says anything wrong.

May 7, 2013; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) handles the ball against Memphis Grizzlies forward Tayshaun Prince (21) during the first half in game two of the second round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

I don’t know how it’s possible but it seems like most people feel Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors or LeBron James of the Miami Heat have been the MVP’s of the NBA Playoffs so far.

Is Kevin Durant really feeling the effects of being in a small market for the first time?

Durant is only the second player in the history of the NBA to be averaging at least 33 points, nine rebounds, six assists and one steal per game in the playoffs (LeBron did it in 2009).

Curry and LeBron have had great postseasons but it’s just not on the same level as what Durant is doing.

This isn’t me saying that Durant is better than LeBron. Think about this though: If Durant averaged what he’s doing in the playoffs for an entire NBA season, he would be the clear-cut MVP. Curry’s numbers aren’t even close and even LeBron’s aren’t.

Durant should even get bonus points for the situation he has been put in. He’s playing without Russell Westbrook for the first time since his rookie season.

This is particularly a challenge since Scott Brooks has designed the Thunder offense to rely so much on Westbrook’s ability to create something out of nothing. Now, with nothing replacing the something Westbrook would create, it’s left Durant literally playing one-on-five at times.

The fact that Durant’s numbers have gotten better while sustaining efficiency is the most remarkable thing about what Durant has been doing since the Westbrook injury.

I’m as big of a Durant fan as you’ll find and even I thought we’d see a much less efficient KD post-Westbrook.

Durant has quickly made us forget that the Thunder shouldn’t be able to make the same NBA Finals they did a year ago because they are now without two of the best 10 players in the league in Westbrook and James Harden.

Maybe more people are counting the Thunder out now, but there is still a definite chance that they beat Memphis and maybe even win the West.

In closing, Curry has been great in these playoffs and maybe more entertaining than Durant. LeBron is still the best player but what Durant is doing definitely makes him the most valuable player in these playoffs so far.

Apr 25, 2013; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Miami Heat forward LeBron James passes off the ball against the Milwaukee Bucks during game three of the first round of the 2013 NBA playoffs at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James is not your unanimous MVP everybody. Some idiot gave Carmelo Anthony a vote.

LeBron ended up with 120 of a possible 121 first-place votes to win his fourth MVP. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Michael Jordan have won at least four MVP’s in their career.

Kevin Durant finished second in the MVP voting while Anthony came in third-place.

Durant received 93 second-place votes, 21 third-place votes, two fourth-place votes and three fifth-place votes. Anthony finished with 16 second-place votes, 51 third-place votes, 27 fourth-place votes and 17 fifth-place.

Chris Paul finished fourth in the MVP voting and Kobe Bryant finished fifth. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan came in sixth and seventh place followed by James Harden in eighth place.

Russell Westbrook came in ninth place receiving just one fourth-place vote and six for fifth-place.

Obviously, LeBron winning the award was an easy choice. It’s very surprising that it wasn’t unanimous and if anyone should have received any first-place votes, it’s Durant and not Anthony.

Durant had one of the best seasons in NBA history as well. He nearly led the league in scoring for the fourth straight season while also shooting 50-40-90 and becoming just the seventh player in NBA history to do so.

Apr 28, 2013; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) drives for the basket during the second quarter of game four of the first round of the 2013 NBA playoffs against the Milwaukee Bucks at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

I hope you’re sitting down.

LeBron James of the Miami Heat has reportedly won the 2013 NBA MVP award and will be awarded the trophy before Game 1 of the Miami Heat’s second round series.

This will be LeBron’s fourth MVP award which puts him in rare company. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6), Michael Jordan (5), Bill Russell (5) and Wilt Chamberlain (4) have won at least four MVP’s. LeBron also won the award in 2009, 2010 and 2012.

LeBron averaged 26.8 points, 7.3 assists and 8.0 rebounds per game this season while shooting 56.5 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from behind the three-point line.

LeBron had the best PER in the league for the sixth straight season at 31.6.

Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder is expected to finish second in the voting. Many believed the MVP race this year to be a two-man race between Durant and LeBron.

Durant was the early favorite this season but then LeBron and the Heat went on historic tears. LeBron had that stretch where he was shooting 70 percent from the field for like two weeks and then the Heat reeled off 27 wins in a row.

Meanwhile all Durant did was nearly lead the league in scoring while becoming just the seventh player in NBA history to have shooting percentages of 50-40-90. It was one of the best years in NBA history only that it coincided with an even better one.

Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and James Harden will probably round out the top five vote-getters for the MVP in some order.

LeBron is the deserving winner without a doubt.

Feb 14, 2013; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) handles the ball against Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) during the second half at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Most people look at Skip Bayless as a talking head that will do anything to gain attention. This is very true to an extent but it doesn’t mean that he is clueless and doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Bayless – a huge fan of Kevin Durant – has been very critical of him over the years. Most recently, he is calling KD out for having a “LeBron Complex.”

He is essentially saying that Durant is too nice and shouldn’t be allowing Russell Westbrook to play the way that he was, Bayless compares Russ to Kobe. It should be the other way around with Durant approaching the court with a Kobe-like mentality and Westbrook being more passive.

The way Bayless phrases this is what will have people up in arms. What he’s actually saying is something that probably everyone has agreed with at some point in time.

What we’ve seen this season is the most dramatic change in Durant’s game. He is trying to be more of an all-around player, improving as a passer, defender and rebounder. On paper, there’s nothing wrong with this and it makes total sense. But at times it feels like Durant has lost his identity somewhat and it isn’t helping the Thunder win.

It makes sense to try and imitate the best player in the league, which is seems is what Durant has been doing. But it doesn’t make sense if you can’t do it perfectly. If Durant can’t be as good as LeBron is playing his game, then it becomes a bad idea to try and be like LeBron. Even when LeBron was slightly not as good, he was still the best player in the league but he wasn’t good enough to win titles yet.

Durant becoming LeBron is something that will never happen and Durant needs to realize this. He needs to just be himself and if anything, more like Kobe.

Bayless is right on the money with this assertion of Durant and he will always be right unless Durant wins a title playing this way. That’s why this is a safe argument for Bayless to make because the only thing that makes him wrong is if Durant wins a title.

The Thunder look further from winning a title right now than they have all season. There is real fear in the minds of Thunder fans. There is fear that the Harden trade was a horrible mistake, Scott Brooks is not the right coach for this team and Durant is not playing the right way. None of those fears existed a season ago, at least not to the extent that they do now.

The regular season is almost over and the playoffs will soon begin. We know how the game changes at that point and it will be very interesting to see which Durant we see. Will he continue to keep imitating LeBron or will be become more Kobe-like? It really could be either.

Feb 14, 2013; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) handles the ball against Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35) during the second half at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Earlier in this NBA season, it looked like Kevin Durant was the frontrunner for the MVP award.

Durant was having a career year accepting more responsibilities on the floor and improving in multiple areas.

There was really no doubt that this award would be a two-man race between Durant and the three-time winner and defender of last year’s MVP, LeBron James.

Even though LeBron still had the better all-around numbers than Durant did, Durant still looked like he could win the award for a couple of reasons.

1. Durant had dramatically improved his game while LeBron was just continuing what he did the past few seasons.

2. Voters are always looking for a fresh face and for a player to make some kind of leap and give the award to that guy.

3. The Thunder were playing better than the Heat and if they had a significantly better record then that would give Durant a really good chance.

These reasons why you could call Durant the MVP this season instead of LeBron are losing their strength.

Durant isn’t struggling or anything like that and he is still playing the best basketball of his career this season. He’s well on his way to leading the league in scoring for the fourth straight season and he’s averaging a career-high in assists per game.

Durant is also looking to become just the seventh player ever to shoot at least 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from the three-point line and 90 percent from the free throw line for a season. Durant would be the first ever to do this while leading the league in scoring too.

Durant is also right there with LeBron in terms of win shares this season as both have 13.5 so far.

But LeBron is increasing his advantage in PER. He now has a PER of 31.6 while Durant’s is 28.7. If LeBron can keep his PER at this level, it will be one of the seven best seasons ever in the NBA in that regard.

LeBron is also shooting lights out this season which is diminishing Durant’s usual edge in that arena. LeBron is shooting an insane 56.7 percent from the field and career-high 41.0 percent from the three-point line.

LeBron is also averaging a career-high 8.1 rebounds per game, 7.1 assists per game (which is the most he’s averaged in a season since he played in Cleveland) and for the first time ever less than three turnovers per game (2.9).

LeBron is simply having one of the great seasons in NBA history. Not even Durant will have a chance to upset that for an MVP award.

The biggest reason why LeBron has to win the MVP this season instead of Durant is the head-to-head matchups.

The Miami Heat beat the Oklahoma City Thunder both times they played this season and each time was in convincing fashion for the Heat. LeBron was on top of his game while Durant seemed to still be trying to figure out how to beat him.

LeBron has the advantage in every way this season. He is the best player in the NBA right now and his numbers reflect exactly that.

Durant’s not in the conversation yet and simply has no chance to dethrone the King for the MVP this year.

Feb 16, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Western Conference forward Kevin Durant (35) of the Oklahoma City Thunder reacts during practice for the 2013 NBA All-Star game at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

The 62nd NBA All-Star Game will take place tonight at 8 p.m. EST in Houston, Texas.

The Western Conference won the game last year 152-149 and Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant was named the MVP with 36 points.

Durant will come into this year’s game as the favorite to win the MVP award again. LeBron James is a close second but when it comes to winning MVPs in All-Star Games, Durant is the best.

Durant has the all-time highest scoring average in All-Star Game history at 28.3 points per game. He also became the first player to score 30 or more points in consecutive All-Star Games last year.

Durant even has the all-time scoring record in the Rookie-Sophomore Game with 46 points back in 2009.

Durant, who has led the league in scoring three straight seasons and doing it again this year, will likely light it up again tonight. Durant only knows one speed when he is on a basketball court. While most players tone it down a little in games like this, Durant’s version of that is still one that fills it up in a heartbeat.

The only way you are winning the All-Star Game MVP is if your team wins the game. The one man that may stand in the way of Durant winning this is his teammate: Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard.

Howard is the complete opposite of Durant in these games. He doesn’t take them seriously at all and will be more interested in shooting threes and handling the ball on the perimeter than winning. There’s nothing wrong with having fun during this game but when doing so keeps you from competing and giving the fans a good product on the floor, it’s a huge problem.

A big reason why the West got out to a big lead on the East last year was Howard. Howard had nine points in the game and went 0-for-4 from three-point range.

The West will have to try and overcome a silly Howard to come out on top tonight and give Durant a chance to win the MVP again.

There’s a good chance the MVP and the outcome of the game will come down to a showdown between Durant and LeBron. They will be guarding each other from the start in this one and should be down the stretch as well if the game is close.

LeBron also scored 36 points last year in a loss and is the second all-time points per game leader in All-Star history at 25.9. He’s been on another level this season and especially lately when it comes to shooting. If he can carry that momentum into tonight where there is less defense than ever then he could really challenge Durant for the MVP.

We could also see a more passive Durant in this game. He’s been more of a passer this season trying to emulate LeBron to a degree. If he lets up even a little and plays that role tonight, it could cost him the MVP.

Coverage of the game will begin at 7 p.m. EST on TNT. The game will tip-off shortly after 8 p.m. EST.

Dec. 25, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) and Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant (35) look up for a rebound during the first half at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

All eyes will be on the NBA Finals rematch tonight when the Oklahoma City Thunder host the Miami Heat at 8 p.m. EST.

It’s the second time this season that the Thunder and Heat will play. The Heat won the first meeting in South Beach on Christmas Day 103-97.

LeBron James and Kevin Durant will be squaring off tonight and the MVP award may be on the line.

LeBron has been on an historic run and if he sweeps the season series vs. Durant and the Thunder, it will be tough for Durant to overcome.

Durant is right there in the MVP race this season and if he can outplay LeBron tonight and the Thunder win, he will be in prime position to win the award.

For most of the season so far, Durant was thought of as the frontrunner for MVP. The Thunder had a better record than the Heat and they looked improved from last season despite losing James Harden.

The biggest reason for this has been the development as Durant into more of an all-around player. Durant has a career-high 29.24 PER this season which isn’t that far behind LeBron’s league leading 31.29 PER.

Durant also has a chance to become just the seventh player in NBA history to shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three and 90 percent from the free throw line for an entire season. Right now he’s sitting at 51.9, 43.2 and 90.4.

If the Thunder end up with a better record than Miami and possibly the best record in the league, the MVP award will likely go to Durant. But even if they do that and if LeBron outplays Durant tonight and the Heat win, it will be hard to argue for KD over LeBron.

LeBron has been putting on a show during the Heat’s six-game winning streak that they have entering tonight’s game. During that stretch, he has scored at least 30 points in every game while shooting at least 60 percent from the field, something no one has ever done before.

This recent stretch has brought LeBron’s shooting percentage to an unfathomable mark of 56.5 percent on the season. He’s shooting a career-high 42.0 percent from beyond the arc as well.

Both Durant and LeBron are so close when it comes to this MVP race. Some will argue that LeBron is the best in the league and therefore the award is his. But Durant has made great strides this season and if he can prove that on any given night he can outplay LeBron and lead his team past the Heat, he will be just as deserving.

It’s not just a regular season game tonight. There is much more on the line. That includes the MVP award.

Feb 12, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) dribbles during the second half against the Portland Trail Blazers at American Airlines Arena. Miami won 117-104. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James has put together one of the best six-game stretches in NBA history.

The Miami Heat have won their last six games while LeBron became the first player in NBA history to score at least 30 points and shoot 60 percent from the field in six straight games.

The most amazing thing about LeBron in these last six games – and really all season – has been his efficiency. He’s only averaging 15.3 field goal attempts per over his last six games and shooting 71.7 percent from the field.

The next game for the Heat and LeBron will be on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder tomorrow night at 8 p.m. EST on TNT.

Will LeBron’s historic run end against the Thunder?

Well, they have as good of a chance as anyone to slow down LeBron. LeBron was the MVP of the NBA Finals vs. the Thunder last season but he didn’t exactly shoot lights out from the field.

LeBron averaged 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists per in five games vs. the Thunder in the Finals but shot just 47.2 percent from the field. There’s nothing wrong with those numbers of course but 47 percent is a lot lower than 71 percent or what LeBron shoots against most other teams.

Kevin Durant actually was the ridiculously efficient shooter in the Finals last year making 54.8 percent of his shots. He has been that way against the Heat consistently since LeBron joined them. Durant didn’t get to the free throw line enough (6.2 times per game) or have the ball enough in that series though.

LeBron dominates the Thunder in a different way than how he has been dominant of late. He will probably be needed to shoot more than 15 times tomorrow night for the Heat to beat the Thunder in OKC. He shot 21.6 times per game in the Finals against the Thunder and attempted 9.2 free throws per game as well.

When the Thunder and Heat played earlier this season on Christmas Day down in Miami, LeBron had 29 points, nine assists and eight rebounds as the Heat won 103-97. He shot 12-for-20 from the field and 5-for-5 from the free throw line.

LeBron has shot over 50 percent from the field vs. the Thunder just once since joining the Heat. He has shot exactly 50 percent against them three times though.

The Thunder are pretty well equipped to handle LeBron. Durant and Thabo Sefolosha will check him for most of the game while Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka make sure he doesn’t get anything easy inside.

LeBron will probably have to settle for more jumpers than he has been lately vs. the Thunder tomorrow. The times when he will get looks inside will come from post-ups and in transition.

All eyes are going to be on the stars tomorrow, LeBron and Durant. The outcome of the game is of course the most important thing but so is LeBron’s historical streak. If it’s the Thunder that win and end LeBron’s mighty run, that will mean a little bit more than the usual victory.

Dec. 25, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) dribbles in front of Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins (5) during the second half at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The Oklahoma City Thunder have played about as well as any team in the NBA this season. They are only a half game behind the San Antonio Spurs for the best record in the league and have the best offense in the league despite trading James Harden before the start of the season.

There aren’t many holes when you break down the Thunder roster. But for Thunder fans that still remember the 2012 NBA Finals, there is one thing still missing from this team.

The Thunder aren’t deep when it comes to matching up with LeBron James. Not many teams are if any but it really could be the Thunder’s Achilles heel in their matchup with the Miami Heat.

LeBron averaged 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game against the Thunder in last year’s NBA Finals. He easily was the MVP of that series and the biggest reason why the Thunder weren’t able to beat the Heat.

The Heat went small in that series playing LeBron at the four which was a major mismatch for the Thunder and especially their starting five. Miami consistently got out to better starts in every one of those Finals games and the Thunder could not figure out what to do with the game’s best player.

For all of the Thunder’s growth as a team this season, they haven’t made any progression in this area. They still will have an incredibly tough time matching up with LeBron.

Right now, the best defender OKC has to put on LeBron is Kevin Durant. The Thunder would rather not put Durant in a situation where he has to guard LeBron and score 30-plus points on the other end.

Thabo Sefolosha is the only other solid option to guard LeBron. But LeBron has shown he can easily take Sefolosha into the post and make plays whether it be scoring or finding open shooters.

The Thunder really need another option for defending LeBron. In the Finals last year they got stuck putting Harden on him and that really put the Thunder at a huge disadvantage.

You’re always going to be at some kind of disadvantage defending LeBron but the Thunder can still become much better at matching up with him.

Look at the team that has done the best job defending LeBron since he came to Miami: the 2011 Dallas Mavericks. They were perfectly constructed to stop LeBron with Shawn Marion and DeShawn Stevenson and Tyson Chandler patrolling the paint.

With the trade deadline coming up Feb. 21, the Thunder really need to take a look at acquiring an athletic wing defender that they can at least throw on to LeBron for 10-12 minutes per game.

The Thunder aren’t looking to make a trade that will overhaul their roster right now so don’t expect anyone big to join the team this season. The best bet is finding someone who isn’t getting a lot of run at their current team that might be interested in one of the Thunder’s draft picks or a Jeremy Lamb or Eric Maynor.

Here’s a few potential players the Thunder could look at: DeShawn Stevenson, Atlanta Hawks; Damion James, Brooklyn Nets; Jimmy Butler, Chicago Bulls; Alonzo Gee, Cleveland Cavaliers; Dahntay Jones, Dallas Mavericks; P.J. Tucker, Phoenix Suns; Jared Jeffries, Portland Trail Blazers; James Johnson, Sacramento Kings; DeMarre Carroll, Utah Jazz; Martell Webster and Cartier Martin, Utah Jazz

As you can see, none of these players will be able to shut down LeBron. The goal would be just finding someone who is athletic and could slow him down. Someone who could use all of his energy in 10-12 minutes to make LeBron work harder than he would like to.

It would be nice if one of these guys could bring a little something on offense too like be able to make spot-up three-pointers or cut well off the ball.

The Thunder won’t necessarily be able to acquire any of these players for Maynor or Lamb straight up. They’d have to include one of their draft picks for sure. These would be valuable assets to give up simply to hopefully match up better with LeBron but it would be worth it for the Thunder.

The argument against a trade for one of these guys would be that the Thunder already have this type of player in DeAndre Liggins. Liggins will likely get a shot against LeBron if the Thunder play the Heat in the Finals but he really isn’t big enough to do much against him. LeBron would easily be able to take Liggins into the post where he is most effective in hurting the Thunder.

Jeffries, Johnson or Carroll are among the best athletes from this list and would likely cause LeBron to work more on the perimeter where the Thunder would have the best chance of slowing him down.

The Thunder have been quiet about any trade talks and there’s probably a better chance than any that they don’t make any moves at all. But don’t underestimate the importance of bringing in a player like this if the Thunder do pull the trigger on Feb. 21.

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

The 2013 NBA All-Star starters were announced on TNT tonight. There weren’t any surprises if you’ve followed the voting returns over the past few weeks.

Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo will start in the backcourt for the Eastern Conference. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Garnett will start in the frontcourt.

Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul will make up the backcourt for the Western Conference. Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard and Blake Griffin will start in the frontcourt.

Kobe led all vote-getters with 1,591,437 votes. Durant was second among vote-getters in the Western Conference with 1,504,047 votes.

LeBron had more votes than anyone in the Eastern Conference with 1,583,646 votes. Anthony was second with 1,460,950 votes.

Chris Bosh came closest to being named a starter receiving just 25,000 less votes than Garnett for the third frontcourt position. Tyson Chandler was fifth among front court vote-getters.

Jeremy Lin nearly beat out Paul for the second backcourt spot in the Western Conference finishing with 45,000 less votes.

Wade and Rondo easily led backcourt vote-getters while Kyrie Irving and Deron Williams finished third and fourth in the voting.

Russell Westbrook will undoubtedly be named a reserve for the Western Conference. James Harden will also definitely make the team. There is an outside shot that Serge Ibaka will make the team especially if anyone goes down with an injury.

Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James will be eligible to opt out of his contract with the Miami Heat after next season. Teams are already starting to prepare for this by making sure they have max cap space available in the summer of 2014.

According to the Akron Beacon Journal, the Cleveland Cavaliers are one team that plans to have the cap space available in 2014 to go after a max player like LeBron.

Could LeBron possibly return to Cleveland in a little over one year? It sounds crazy at first but then again it sounds like something LeBron would maybe consider.

We know LeBron isn’t necessarily loyal to the team he plays for. That obviously isn’t the case because he already left Cleveland. We also know that LeBron wants to win as many titles as possible before he retires and he is willing to go to the team with the best chance to do so. That’s why he picked Miami a few summers ago.

After next season, Cleveland may be in a very good position to compete for a title if they were to add LeBron. Kyrie Irving will be entering his fourth season in the NBA that summer and he has already shown signs of becoming the elite point guard of the future.

The Cavaliers also have young building blocks like Dion Waiters, Tristan Thompson and Tyler Zeller on their roster right now. If just one of those players blossoms into a near All-Star caliber player then Cleveland could be a perfect landing spot for LeBron in 2014.

Isn’t there also a part of LeBron that has to want to make things right with his hometown again?

It would make sense for LeBron to stay in the Eastern Conference as well, which has been much weaker than the West for some time now. And when you look around the rest of the East now, there aren’t many young teams on the verge of becoming title contenders.

Of course it will probably be tough for a team like Cleveland to look more appetizing for LeBron than Miami in just two years. Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh still aren’t that old yet and will likely be at near All-Star levels still in 2014.

But if they do start to drop off and the Heat are doing nothing more than filling out their roster with veteran minimum contracts over the next two years, that could change LeBron’s mind about his title hopes in Miami.

It will also be hard for LeBron to consider leaving if Miami wins another title or two before that summer. He’s probably not one to leave a team who has made it to the NBA Finals in four straight seasons and won a few championships.

LeBron will be still only 29 years old in 2014. If he stays in Miami for the final two years of his current contract, he won’t be signing another contract until he is 31. LeBron will definitely be one of the two best players in the league still at age 29 but by 31, maybe he will start to drop off. And signing a max contract at age 29 will mean he can probably get another max contract before his career is over, while waiting to sign a max contract at age 31 will mean it is likely his last.

Basically, LeBron might be able to maximize his NBA salary earnings by leaving Miami in 2014.

There is a lot of time between now and the summer of 2014 and a lot of things that could happen for LeBron. It’s never too early to start preparing for the future though and Cleveland will quickly forget how LeBron left them if he decides to come back home.

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

It’s hard to find positives to take away from yesterday’s Oklahoma City Thunder-Miami Heat game if you are a Thunder fan. They lost 103-97 in the same fashion they were outplayed during the NBA Finals vs. Miami.

But there is one thing that Thunder fans should appreciate and feel very good about: Kevin Durant doesn’t back down from LeBron James. In fact, he is very close to his equal in a head-to-head matchup.

Remember how everyone wanted to say that LeBron completely outplayed Durant in the NBA Finals? Not true. He was better overall and that’s a big reason why the Heat won but Durant held his own and then some.

Durant averaged 30.6 points on 54.8 percent shooting from the field in the Thunder’s 4-1 Finals loss back in June. Yesterday, Durant scored 33 points with 25 of those coming in the second half as more than a few times, he took LeBron – the best, most perfect defender you could ever put on Durant – on one-on-one and scored on him.

Durant doing this and doing it so often is going unnoticed and not for no reason. LeBron has also been spectacular in these head-to-head games, but the differential of him vs. Durant is less than it’s being made out to be.

It’s amazing too because Durant is four years younger than LeBron. If he were completely struggling and in awe of playing against him at this point in his career that would be perfectly acceptable. We’ve seen that all the time through the years in this league.

But Durant seems very close to getting over the hump and becoming an equal to LeBron, if he hasn’t already. He does it in a slightly different way that won’t be looked at as highly as the way LeBron is effective but at the end of the day, it can be enough to overtake the King.

The Thunder really played a very poor game yesterday. It was nothing like what they showed during their winning streak the past few weeks. They were still in the game in the final minutes just like how they were during the NBA Finals.

Remember when the Thunder went down 0-2 vs. the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals then everything suddenly clicked for them? There is a good chance that fate will again be the Thunder’s if they see the Heat again in the NBA Finals.

If you think about it, it seems very plausible. And the position the Thunder are currently in, so close to that point where they can beat the Heat, is really the ideal spot to be in right now.

Because when the Thunder finally do become a team ready to beat the Heat in a series, Miami won’t have time to react. We see it all the time in this league and the Thunder have already shown they are a team capable of something like this.

The best news of all: Durant is already there. He just needs to bring his teammates along with him and he is already in the process of doing this. It all starts with your best player and knowing that Durant is ready, is something Thunder fans have to be happy about.

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James has been the best basketball player in the NBA for about the past four seasons. In that time he has won three MVP awards, captured the elusive NBA title and won a gold medal.

LeBron has done everything in that time on the floor as well. He gets triple-doubles far more often than anyone else in the league and is described as the only player in the league who can play all five positions.

This season LeBron currently ranks 5th in the league in scoring behind Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and James Harden. But LeBron says he could lead the league in scoring if he wanted to, it’s just not his job.

LeBron is right in saying this. If the Heat needed him to score 30-plus points per game, he could certainly do so. He’s averaging a career-low field goal attempts per game this season so it’s not hard to imagine what LeBron would be capable of is he shot a little more often.

But you can really say this about a lot of players at the end of the day. Durant has led the league in scoring the past three seasons and the biggest reason why he isn’t this year is because he’s trying to work on his game being more balanced.

Really only Kobe and Anthony are probably maxing out their scoring potential right now on their teams. Although there are definitely scenarios out there where if they were on different teams with different casts, they’d be scoring more too.

The real question when it comes to LeBron and scoring is: is he the best scorer in the league or not. There are not a lot people who would say this about LeBron. Most say Durant or Anthony or Kobe still.

Sure, LeBron is a better overall player and better overall offensively than these guys but he can’t score at the same clip as often. The biggest downfall for LeBron as a scorer is that he is not the great shooter that the other three are. LeBron has done a great job over the years working on his shot and shooting a very high percentage but in a bubble, he can’t outshoot any of those guys and doesn’t have the same offensive repertoire of either of them either.

So is LeBron right that he could potentially lead the league in scoring if that’s what his team needed to do? Sure. But so could a lot of players in this league.

Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

We are a little more than a quarter of the way finished with the NBA season now. The Oklahoma City Thunder are currently the hottest team in the league with the best record and on an 11-game win streak.

The New York Knicks still hold the top spot in the Eastern Conference just a game and a half ahead of the Miami Heat. The Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs are two games back each of the Thunder.

A few disappointments so far have been the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets who each would barely make the playoffs if they started today. But no team has been more disappointing than the Los Angeles Lakers so far.

Team success has a lot to do with MVP candidacy. Now let’s look at the players who are in the running for the award so far this year.

1. Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder

Durant still deserves the top spot here with the Thunder rolling the way that they are. Durant is putting up career numbers in terms of PER and true shooting percentage as he has a shot at joining the 50-40-90 club. His improvement from last season will be a big reason why he is considered the MVP so far this season especially with James Harden’s departure.

2. Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks

The Knicks just keep winning while Anthony is playing the best basketball of his career. He really seems to have carried over his Olympic play to the NBA season and it has been perfect for this Knicks team. The veterans surrounding Anthony are only helping to lift him to another level this season too.

3. LeBron James, Miami Heat

You can’t drop LeBron too far down the MVP ladder. He’s still leading the league in PER and putting up better all-around numbers than anyone. The Heat just haven’t been winning quite as much as you’d expect. All it’s going to take is a big month or two from LeBron and the Heat for him to get back in poll position of this race.

4. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

What Kobe is doing at this age and leading the league in scoring as efficiently as he’s ever been is remarkable. The issue is the Lakers aren’t winning, at all. Once they do and most people still believe they will eventually get their act together, Kobe will be right up there in the MVP discussion.

5. Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers are quietly on a winning streak just as impressive as the Thunder’s. Paul is 5th in the NBA in PER behind only the four players ahead of him in these Power Rankings. The Clippers look much better than a season ago, more prepared to make a deep run in the playoffs. Their depth has been a big reason for their success though so it’s not all Paul which is why he ranks only 5th.

6. Zach Randolph, Memphis Grizzlies

The Grizzlies have gotten off to a great start this season thanks mostly to Randolph. Randolph isn’t near the top of the league in PER but his averages of 17.2 points and 12.7 rebounds per game will not go unnoticed by MVP voters. Memphis has shown that they are as tough as anyone in the league to match up with and Randolph being their power forward is the biggest reason why.

7. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

Curry has led the Warriors to the fifth best record in the Western Conference so far this season. The key has simply been his health. He’s averaging 19.7 points, 6.5 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game. His shooting numbers have not been their best either so expect those to rise as the season goes on. The Warriors have been one of the biggest surprises of the year playing this well so early. If they can keep it up, Curry will deserve some MVP attention.

8. Josh Smith, Atlanta Hawks

Smith and the Hawks have also surprised the NBA in their first season after Joe Johnson currently holding the third best record in the Eastern Conference. They have many impressive wins including against the Thunder in OKC. Smith is averaging 16.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game to lead the Hawks.

9. Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics

Rondo is still leading the league in assists by far and if the Celtics can get their act together and move up the standings in the Eastern Confernce, he will keep moving up in the MVP Power Rankings. He’s averaging 12.9 points, 12.7 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game this year as he looks to be playing the best ball of his career.

10. Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder

Westbrook will never win the NBA because he is on the same team as Kevin Durant but he still deserves to be ahead of others in the MVP Power Rankings. Like Durant, Westbrook is also having a career year passing the ball better than ever and playing defense at the highest level we’ve ever seen from him. The Thunder needed Durant and Westbrook to step up and fill the Harden void this year and both have done exactly that.

Kevin Jairaj-USA Today

The 2012-13 NBA season is about 25 percent over with now for most teams. There haven’t been many surprises and some things look to be the same with the Miami Heat the clear-cut favorite in the Eastern Conference and Oklahoma City and San Antonio atop the West.

One thing that may change this season is the MVP.

LeBron James won the MVP last season, his third hoisting of the trophy in four years. Many thought he would win it again easily this season after he really separated himself from the pack last year.

Kevin Durant is right there with him so far this season and is currently the frontrunner thanks to a career year in many respects.

Durant is right around the league lead averaging 27.0 points per game and is also averaging career-highs with 8.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. His shooting numbers are even more impressive with career-highs in field goal percentage (50.6) and 3-point percentage (44.0) and a true shooting percentage of 64.0.

Durant is flirting with the prestigious 50-40-90 club and for someone who scores as much as he does and shoots as much, it would be an incredibly impressive feat worthy of putting him ahead of someone like LeBron for the MVP.

LeBron’s numbers are great as always leading the league with a 28.9 PER which is better than Durant’s 27.6 PER. But LeBron’s PER took a step back from last season while Durant’s improved. Durant’s also experiencing more team success despite being in a much tougher conference and it has resulted with Durant having a better Win Shares per 48 Minutes number.

We all know that team success plays a large role in determining the MVP, who rarely comes from teams who aren’t 1- or 2-seeds in their conference. The Thunder have simply been better this season than Miami.

Taking that next step and making a big jump are also big contributors in finding out who the MVP is. Durant has taken that next step rounding out his game more and is approaching LeBron statistically. Meanwhile, LeBron’s step back, even though he still leads the league in PER, will work against him in the voting.

The MVP award is still a two-man race just like last season. There are a few dark horses in Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant but it will more than likely come down to Durant vs. LeBron by the end of the season.

A quarter of the way in, Durant has the upper hand. There’s plenty of time for LeBron to reclaim his MVP throne but he has his work cut out for him.

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

We are always on watch for the next great rivalry in the NBA. It has undoubtedly arrived in the form of Kevin Durant and LeBron James.

Durant and LeBron met in the NBA Finals last year kicking off what has no choice but to be one of the great rivalries in NBA history.

Who do we compare them to though?

It’s not really Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain or Michael Jordan vs. anyone. But it’s kind of starting to look like Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson with Durant playing the role of Bird and LeBron as Magic.

Of course, it is not exactly the same as Bird vs. Magic. LeBron and Durant didn’t come into the league at the same time. LeBron is ahead of Durant so far developing into a legend. LeBron and Durant actually play the same position too so we get to see them matched up against each other head-to-head more often.

LeBron has always drawn comparisons to Magic. For his size, he has become one of the most transcendent passers this game has ever seen much like Magic. He is a physical force for his position and loves making his teammates around him better.

Durant hasn’t always been compared to Bird but he’s starting to a little bit lately. Durant is definitely the Bird in this matchup because he has the pure shot. He’s a killer with his jump shot too. He wants the ball at the end of games with the intentions of shooting one in your eye. Durant can’t pass or rebound like Bird but he is improving in both of those areas.

Bird did something that was pretty much unprecedented at the time in the late 80’s shooting over 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three and 90 percent from the free throw line. This is something Durant is looking to replicate this season and he is aware of the rareness and importance of such a feat.

LeBron has always had the edge over Durant in terms of efficiency. His PER has been at an all-time mark the past few seasons, easily better than Durant’s. But if Durant can become a 50-40-90 guy playing the style he does, it will be a kind of advantage LeBron can’t match, something that will take this rivalry to new heights.

Bird and Magic met in the NBA Finals three times in the 1980’s and either the Celtics or Lakers made it to the Finals every season that decade. It feels like Durant and LeBron are destined for at least three meetings in the NBA Finals over the next decade. It will be harder to dominate the league like the Celtics and Lakers did back then but they can probably come pretty close.

Bird ended up winning three championships while Magic won five. Bird took home three MVP’s and Magic also won three.

Most people will say Magic was the better player, some even say he is close to Michael Jordan all-time. At the end of the day, LeBron will probably be talked about in the same light as Magic. He is close to MJ but not quite.

But with the game on the line and needing someone to take the last shot, you would pick Bird over Magic 100 times out of 100. The same is true for Durant vs. LeBron. There’s nothing prettier in the NBA right now then seeing Durant flick his wrists from distance and that’s because it looks so true every time the ball comes off his fingers.

The Bird vs. Magic debate still goes on even to this day. They changed the NBA, saved it even. You can pick either one and never be wrong.

Durant vs. LeBron has a chance to be that too. They’re not saving the league but their impact is just as important taking it in a new direction.

Right now, LeBron is the right choice, but Durant is closing in on him. And when he catches him, the next great rivalry in the NBA will be in full force.

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder and LeBron James of the Miami Heat have been named the Players of the Month for the month of November.

Durant led the Thunder to a 13-4 record in November. He ranked second in the league averaging 26.5 points per game while shooting 51.0 percent from the field, 43.3 percent from three and 89.3 percent from the free throw line.

Durant also averaged 8.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.7 blocks per game in the month, all of which would be career-highs for him.

LeBron led the Heat to an 11-3 record in November. He averaged 25.0 points, 8.9 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game while shooting 53.3 percent from the field. LeBron scored at least 20 points in every Heat game for the month.

It’s no surprise that Durant and LeBron come out of the gates looking the frontrunners for the MVP this season. They finished first and second in the MVP voting a season ago and are expected to do pretty much the same thing this season.

Both are putting up very impressive numbers but Durant has made larger strides statistically so far this season than LeBron, who is essentially putting up the same numbers he did a season ago. That kind of improvement is something that will give Durant a chance at beating out LeBron for the MVP this season.

Durant also has a chance to finish the season with shooting percentages 50-40-90 (FG-3PT-FT) which would be extremely impressive for a player that plays the way he does.

Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

The NBA released its jersey sales numbers today and LeBron James has the top selling jersey in the league this year, according to the Sun Sentinel.

LeBron only had the fourth highest selling jersey last year while Derrick Rose was number one. Rose has dropped to number five this year.

Kevin Durant checks in at number two behind LeBron moving all the way up from number eight a year ago. Kobe Bryant is fourth and Carmelo Anthony is fifth.

Russell Westbrook checks in at number 12 on the list while James Harden is absent from the top 15. That is likely to change for next year with Harden changing teams to the Houston Rockets.

In the last 10 years, Kobe has had the top selling jersey six times and LeBron has held the title three times.

The New York Knicks are the top selling team jersey. The Miami Heat are second followed by the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics to round out the top five. The Oklahoma City Thunder come in sixth as a team.

The sales are based on numbers from NBA.com and the NBA Store in New York City from April 2012 up until November 2012.

Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

We’re about a month into the 2012-13 NBA season and it’s time to start looking at who the potential MVP candidates are.

Last year, we saw LeBron James take home his third MVP in four years as the Miami Heat went on to win the NBA title behind a career year from LeBron.

Kevin Durant finished second in the voting last season while players like Chris Paul and Tony Parker made strong cases as the league’ most valuable player as well.

Here’s a look at MVP Power Rankings a month into the season:

1. LeBron James, Miami Heat

LeBron and the Heat are off to another strong start this season and should cruise to the one seed in the Eastern Conference when it’s all said and done. LeBron’s numbers are just as good as they were a season ago. He’s averaging 25.2 points, 6.5 assists and a career-high 8.9 rebounds per game. He’s still shooting 53.1 percent from the field and a career-best 43.9 percent from beyond the arc. He leads the league in PER and it will take a monster effort from anyone else to dethrone him as the MVP.

2. Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder

Many believe the MVP will be a two-man race this year between LeBron and Durant. Durant is also off to a great start this season leading the Thunder to a 10-4 record so far. He has a career-best PER of 27.02 so far this year and is averaging career-highs in rebounds (9.4) and assists (4.5) per game. His 26.5 points per game again puts him in the hunt for another scoring title which would be his fourth straight. But it’s his commitment to becoming a better all-around player this year that may nudge him closer to LeBron in the MVP race.

3. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

There has been a lot of drama in L.A. so far this season with coaching changes and under the radar has been the season Kobe is putting together. Kobe is leading the league in scoring at 26.9 points per game and shooting career-highs 51.0 percent from the field and 41.5 percent from beyond the arc. He has been the brightest spot for the Lakers so far this season and if he keeps this up while the Lakers start winning more, he may challenge LeBron and Durant for the MVP hardware.

4. Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs

As usual, Duncan and the Spurs are flying under the radar this year. The Spurs have the second best record in the league so far this year and Duncan is second in the league in PER behind only LeBron. He’s averaging 19.0 points and 10.5 rebounds in only 31.4 minutes per game. He’s shooting 51.7 percent from the field and blocking 2.4 shots per game. Duncan may not be able to keep up these numbers all season but what he’s doing shouldn’t go as unnoticed as it is.

5. Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks

The Knicks have the second-best record in the East and Carmelo Anthony is playing the best basketball of his career. He’s much more efficient than he was a season ago and is averaging 25.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game while shooting 47.0 percent from the field and 41.9 percent from downtown. The Knicks look for real this year and if so, Anthony is an MVP candidate.

6. Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics

Rondo was the favorite sleeper pick for MVP this season. He has been great to start the year but the Celtics’ record isn’t quite good enough to put him ahead of some other guys just yet. Rondo is on an assist tear this year leading the league averaging 13.7 per game to go with 13.5 points per game. He’s shooting a career-high 51.7 percent from the field and has a career-high 21.04 PER so far this year.

7. Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers

Paul’s numbers are slightly down from a season ago but the Clippers are better. They’ve looked like one of the best teams in the league so far beating the Heat once and Spurs twice. Paul is averaging 15.8 points and 9.6 assists per game. He’d either have to improve those numbers a good deal or the Clippers would have to finish with the one seed in the West for him to have a legit shot at winning the MVP.

8. Kevin Love, Minnesota Timberwolves

Love has just recently returned from injury and has played only three games so far this season. But he’s already averaging 24.3 points and 14.0 rebounds per game while the Timberwolves look like a team that could make the playoffs once they get healthy. If they do and Love keeps putting up these numbers, he will be right up there with LeBron, Durant and Kobe at the end of the year.

9. Kyle Lowry, Toronto Raptors

Lowry is off to a career-year with his new team this season. He’s posting a career-high 24.67 PER which is good for 9th in the NBA. He’s averaging 18.3 points, 6.1 assists and 5.9 rebounds per game. Toronto is only 3-11 on the year but if Lowry stays healthy he will surely make the All-Star team and be one of the most important players to his team in the league.

10. Anthony Davis, New Orleans Hornets

Davis is the real deal. The No. 1 overall pick has been banged up this season but when healthy he has the 4th highest PER in the league. He’s averaging 16.0 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game while shooting 49.3 percent from the field and 83.9 percent from the free throw line. Once the Hornets get Davis and Eric Gordon back in the lineup, they might be able to make a push for the playoffs while Davis puts up enormous numbers.

Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant has been named the Western Conference Player of the Week for the first time this season. Durant led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 3-1 record last week while averaged 28.0 points, 10.3 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.8 blocks per game.

Durant helped the Thunder to a come from behind 92-90 victory in Detroit on Nov. 12. He had 26 points and nine rebounds.

Durant scored 34 points to go with 10 rebounds as the Thunder lost to the Grizzlies 107-97 two nights later.

Durant had 27 on 9-of-12 shooting to go with nine rebounds as the Thunder easily beat the Hornets 110-95 Friday night.

Durant capped off the week with his first career triple-double in a 119-109 win over the Warriors Sunday night. He tallied 25 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high 10 assists.

LeBron James took home Player of the Week honors in the Eastern Conference. He also led the Heat to a 3-1 record while averaging 29.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game.

After somewhat of a slow start, Durant looks to be catching back up to LeBron statistically as the two will most likely make up a two-man race for the MVP this season.

Durant is averaging 24.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game so far this season. He’s shooting 51.1 percent from the field and 46.9 percent from three. He’s fourth in the league in PER among players who have played at least seven games this year, behind only LeBron, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan.

LeBron is also averaging 24.5 points per game so far this season to go with 9.0 rebounds and 6.5 assists. He’s shooting 52.4 percent from the field and 43.8 percent from downtown. LeBron is essentially leading the league in PER at 29.15 with only injured Kyle Lowry who has played just four games this year ahead of him.

Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

The NBA GMs participated in their annual survey earlier this week where they all answered a series of questions regarding the league.

One of the questions was: Which player would you pick to start an NBA franchise with today?

Last year, the GMs were split right down the middle on this question, 37 percent for Kevin Durant and 37 percent for LeBron James.

Now 80 percent of GMs say they would take LeBron over Durant. That’s a lot of change in one year. LeBron is coming off the best year of his career and finally got the monkey off his back and won a title but when it comes to this question, Durant should be right there with LeBron.

The thinking behind picking Durant instead of LeBron a year ago should not have changed now. Durant is still four years younger, has not fully reached his potential and also just had the best season of his career. Unless you really believed a year ago that LeBron would never win a title, your vote should remain the same.

Regardless of what the GMs say, why is Durant the better choice here?

LeBron is clearly at the apex of his career. It would surprise just about everyone if he takes his game to another, higher level this coming season or the next. Best case for LeBron now is sustaining what he did last year. He needs to do that and if Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh can keep playing at elite levels, the Heat will continue to compete for titles.

Durant’s ceiling is unreached and really unknown as of right now. Some say he was dominated by LeBron in the Finals. That’s not exactly true though. He did end up in foul trouble in a few games which definitely changed the series but that was something he could have controlled better. Offensively, Durant scored 30.6 points per game and shot 54.8 percent from the field in the Finals. That’s not exactly getting dominated.

So imagine what happens as Durant reaches his apex since he’s already putting in performances this great now. Imagine what becomes of the Thunder team as Durant and Westbrook continue to learn how to play together even better. Or when Durant becomes a better playmaker, maybe averaging around five assists per game, and a better defender, one who is actually a perfect design to counter LeBron.

Durant is also the better closer. This seems to mainly be due to the fact that he is a better shooter and essentially the best shooter in the league. Just about every team that wins a title has their best player known for being clutch. Chris Paul is the NBA’s best closer right now but Durant is next in line. He gave us a glimpse of just how dominant he can be in the fourth quarter in last year’s playoffs. Soon he will take over the reigns as the league’s best closer which will take his game and team to another level.

Because Durant is the better pure shooter, his game is better suited for the long-haul. Durant will likely be able to play forever with that skill. What happens when LeBron starts losing a step and can’t blow by defenders anymore? What’s he going to start relying on? He will still be one of the best players in the league but not nearly in the same way that he is now.

Durant is pretty close to LeBron already. He’s only a few years at most away from getting to his level as he continues to ascend and LeBron soon will decline. When starting a franchise you have to be thinking long-term right? Give me Durant in that case.

Mark D. Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Earlier this week odds for which player will win the 2012-13 NBA MVP award came out. Not surprisingly, LeBron James was the heavy favorite at 9/5 odds.

Kevin Durant had the second best odds at 15/4.

LeBron definitely deserves to be considered the favorite but that doesn’t mean he’s the only one who can win the award and Durant does have the best chance to steal the hardware from him.

How can Durant do this? It’s going to be very hard for Durant to put up better all-around numbers than LeBron and finish with a higher PER. How likely is it for Durant to beat out LeBron?

The MVP award doesn’t always go to the most deserving player in terms of a stat like PER, which is a pretty decent way to say who had the best season. There’s more to it. MVP voters seem to always be looking for a fresh face or the better story to rationalize giving it to someone else. It happened when Michael Jordan was in the league and it happened two years ago when Derrick Rose beat out LeBron for the award.

Durant will have this working for him and that’s why he will have a great chance. Durant is widely considered the second best player in the league right now behind LeBron and finished second in the MVP voting last season.

Team success always plays a big part in winning the award. There was a reason Kevin Love was not in the conversation for MVP last season despite the fact that his numbers were off the chart and he was extremely valuable to his team.

Part of the formula for Durant beating out LeBron for the award will be the Oklahoma City Thunder having a more impressive regular season than the Miami Heat. This is very possible as the Heat have underperformed to an extent in the regular season in each of the last two seasons. If the Thunder can roll through a very deep Western Conference and win more games than anyone else, Durant will be in prime position for the award.

Durant will also need to show some statistical improvement from last year. This is easier said than done as Durant posted a career-high in true shooting percentage last season and shot nearly 50 percent from the field.

Durant’s shooting percentages looked like this: 49.6 FG, 38.7 3-point, 86.0 FT. If he can creep closer to and flirt with 50-40-90 while still scoring as much as he does, he will make a strong case for beating out LeBron.

One of the things most admit that Durant does better than LeBron is score. He needs to really separate himself from LeBron in this light. If it’s a case where Durant averages 28 per game while LeBron is right behind him at 27, it will be hard to talk yourself into voting for Durant over LeBron. But if it’s Durant scoring 30 a game with LeBron around 26, then there’s a significant gap working for Durant’s case.

Durant also needs to improve his assist-to-turnover ratio. He has yet to have a season where he has had more assists than turnovers. Last year, he averaged a career-high 3.5 assists per game and he needs to build on that while cutting down the turnovers as well.

Another big improvement made by Durant last season was his growth as a closer late in games. He really became clutch during the playoff run last year and hit a few game-winners along the way. If Durant can have some big time, memorable clutch moments this season, it will really work in his favor in the MVP race.

Durant has the right personality to win over voters, he is right on track statistically to win the award and the Thunder are good enough to finish as the top seed in the West. A lot needs to go right for Durant to beat out LeBron for the MVP award next season but he has as good a shot as anyone.

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

A story came out yesterday that the Los Angeles Lakers are planning to target LeBron James in 2014, when he can opt out of his contract with the Miami Heat and become a free agent.

The idea behind this is that Kobe Bryant might retire after playing two more seasons which would open up the cap room to go after a player like LeBron. LeBron will almost certainly opt out of his contract even if he plans to stay with Miami simply to get a maximum contract.

LeBron was asked about the rumors yesterday.

“That story, I don’t know where it came from, but I understand why it came up because of who I am — it’s going to happen,” LeBron said. “But I’m not going to worry about it. I’ve got to continue to stay focused with these guys and make sure we’re ready for any challenges that come.”

Meanwhile, Dwight Howard is still recovering from having surgery on his back this offseason and has yet to play in the preseason. A source has said that Howard is eyeing the Lakers’ game Sunday vs. the Sacramento Kings for his return.

Howard went on to say that he will be “nervous” somewhat when he returns to the floor.

“I know I’m going to be a little rusty, I haven’t played in so long,” Howard said. “It’s going be a little different, but I’m looking forward to it. Once I get my first dunk or my first block, everything will be OK.”

It will be interesting to see Howard in a Lakers uniform playing with Steve Nash and Kobe for the first time and how well they work together.

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

It’s no surprise that LeBron James will enter the 2012-13 NBA season as the heavy favorite to win the MVP.

LeBron captured his third MVP in four years last season and appears to be at the peak of his powers. His PER of 30.74 last season was by far the best in the league while Chris Paul came in second with a PER of 27.04.

The Sports Book Bovada currently has LeBron winning the MVP at 9/5 odds. Kevin Durant is second at 15/4. Kobe Bryant is third at 12/1. Russell Westbrook, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash are all 16/1.

Five of the top six players in terms of these odds are either on the Thunder or the Lakers. The Heat, Thunder and Lakers are considered to be slightly in a class by themselves to compete for an NBA title this season and combined with their star power it’s no surprise that the odds look like this.

The odds say that it will be closer to a 2-man race than anything else between LeBron and Durant, just like it was last season. Durant will have a lot of ground to make up if he is going to legitimately take the award from LeBron. Voters are always looking for fresh faces with the MVP though and if the Thunder have a better regular season record and Durant has a career-year, maybe he can pull it off.

Westbrook may be standing in Durant’s way as much as anything given the fourth best odds to win the MVP. That shows how valuable Westbrook is to the Thunder and will make it harder for Durant to really stand out as the MVP of his team and the league.

It’s interesting that Kobe has better odds than Howard. At this stage in his career Kobe is clearly on the decline while a new face in Howard in L.A. could make the Lakers an unstoppable force. If that is the case, often the voters will look to what changed from the year before to place the value and that will most likely be Howard’s impact.

And if you are really crazy, you can bet your money on James Harden to win the hardware at 350/1 odds.

Michael Hickey-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant was recently asked which NBA legend would he have wanted to play with the most.

Here is what he said: “Larry Bird because I just respect him so much, how humble he is, how he was just all about playing the game of basketball above nothing else. Just how hard he played and how skilled he was.”

Before we analyze Durant’s pick in Bird, just think for a moment how insane a Durant-Bird would be.

It’s an interesting pick though for Durant. He was kind of on the spot it appears with the question but he didn’t hesitate in saying Bird’s name.

What isn’t surprising is that one of the things Durant admires about Bird is what he embodies himself. He says he loves how humble Bird was and we all know just how humble Durant is.

Durant is actually probably much more humble than Bird. Bird is more subdued with how he speaks but is actually one of the most confident, cocky players of all-time, especially known for talking trash and calling his shots.

While a Durant-Bird duo would be awesome to see, maybe the best player that you could have play alongside Durant is someone playing today.

Durant and LeBron James showed in the 2012 Olympics just how perfect their games are for each other. In that setting with the two mostly playing the two forward spots, interchangeably and side by side, they blended together perfectly.

LeBron’s pass-first attitude next to the deadliest scorer in the world made for one of the more unstoppable basketball combinations the world has ever seen. When they ran the pick-and-pop together, there was no chance of anyone or anything stopping them.

Durant and Bird together would have been a similar version to Durant and LeBron. Of course LeBron is the greater athlete but the brilliant plays that Bird would make teamed up with Durant would surely be one of a kind as well.

It was the second straight year that Durant worked out with LeBron in the summer but Durant says it’s not really a big deal at all.

“A lot of people blew (it) out of proportion,” Durant told The Oklahoman. “It was just one day. I’m a competitive guy. I’m sure you guys have seen that in me. I just wanted to work out. That’s what it was all about. I’ll work out with anybody. I would have worked out with Kobe Bryant. I would have worked out with Carmelo (Anthony). I just wanted to work out and get better.”

What’s rubbed some people the wrong way is that Durant and LeBron are becoming the biggest individual rivalry in the NBA, yet they seem to be developing this close friendship at the same time. Some people want the league’s biggest rivalry to be fueled by hate instead of friendship.

The point Durant is trying to make here is probably the best one: it’s simply not that big of a deal. This kind of thing has been going on in the league forever, rival players working out together in the offseason.

“I’ve been friends with him since I was in high school, and to play on the same team with him after we lost to them in the Finals that was the toughest thing,” Durant said. “Just seeing him every day after they beat us, that was tough. But I had to let that go and just focus on Team USA and that’s what I did.

“I think I grew a lot as far as mentally when I did that, just letting things go and just moving on. It was tough. It was tough for (Russell Westbrook) and James (Harden) as well. But we moved on from that and got better as individuals throughout this summer and helped the team win gold.”

The perspective Durant takes here is pretty awesome. To take the Olympic experience playing with LeBron, the guy who just beat you in the NBA Finals, and try and grow from it says a lot about the kind of player and person Durant is. He just always seems to be doing everything the right way and saying the right things.

Watching Durant in the Finals then in the Olympics, you have to trust his words too. You have to fully expect he will be back next season more prepared to win an NBA championship especially if it’s LeBron that he sees in the Finals.

The Thunder will play the Heat twice this coming season, first on Christmas Day in Miami and then in OKC on Feb. 14.

A lot of people think this is a weird thing to happen in sports and in the NBA in particular. A lot of people think there was a time when the hatred among the biggest rivalries in the league was better for the sport. Bird and Magic hated each other. Jordan wanted to kill anyone in his path. This “new” friendship that we are seeing in the NBA among its superstars has made the league softer than it used to be.

People are divided on how they feel about this. Skip Bayless leads one side that this means LeBron “owns” Durant now. He has a psychological advantage over him because he is keeping is enemy close to him. It would be in Durant’s best interest to have nothing to do with LeBron in the summers and instead of being friends with him, try to hate him.

Then there are those who like this. It’s cool that LeBron and Durant are this close and that the two best players in the league despite being on different teams are working out together like this to help each other get better. It’s love and respect, which is probably stronger than hate by the way.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about this at first. I want to hate LeBron in a sports sense. I want to see him lose vs. Durant. I want to see that Jordan-look in Durant’s eyes (Durant does have a similar look, only problem is he looks like a 10-year old who is pouting) when he has the ball and LeBron is guarding him, like he wants to destroy him, embarrass him and then laugh at him later. I thought that was the best way.

But now I’m not so sure. After watching Durant as closely as possible this past season, I know without a shadow of a doubt that he in no way is less prepared or has less desire to beat LeBron simply because he is his friend. Durant is as competitive as there is in this league. If you’ve been around sports, you see it in how he plays. He knows only one speed on the basketball court. It’s not a coincidence that he is always scoring the most points in All-Star games or dropping 66 in games that don’t matter in the offseason. That’s part of Durant’s drive. He wants to be the best at all times and he wants it now. He doesn’t have to hate to get there.

What Durant and LeBron are doing in the summers has just one goal: they want to get better. LeBron’s not doing this to learn Durant’s tricks and get a one-up on him in that way. Durant isn’t either. This isn’t the first time this has happened in the NBA either. The best players have been friends and hung out in the offseason for years. We just think we are hearing about it now for the first time because it’s 2012 and LeBron and Durant are tweeting about it.

So I don’t think Durant is making a mistake by doing this, not at all. In fact, this isn’t even that big of a deal. Really it’s just two NBA players working out with each other in the summer. No big deal.

Durant will continue to creep closer to LeBron next season. We saw LeBron hit the absolute apex of his career last year. But Durant wasn’t that far off. He outplayed LeBron in one of their regular season meetings and then outplayed him in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. LeBron was comfortable and seemingly doing whatever he wanted in the Finals but he did not individually dominate Durant in the way people want to remember. Durant averaged 30.6 points per game and shot .548 percent from the field in the Finals. He wasn’t dominated, just overall he was outplayed. At 23 years old, that is acceptable. It was a learning experience and Durant and the Thunder will be back next year more prepared.

LeBron and the Heat still have a few years left in them to be competing for titles. A lot depends on the health of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh but if all goes well in the pathetic Eastern Conference, they will be back in the Finals waiting for Durant and the Thunder if they can get past the new-look Lakers.

It’s the newest rivalry in sports, LeBron vs. Durant. It has the potential to be remembered as one of the best rivalries in the history of the NBA. LeBron and Durant working out together in the summers, winning gold medals together and loving and respecting each other will only make it that much better.

Thanks Durant, now I don’t hate LeBron anymore.

Just a few weeks after the NBA Finals where LeBron took down Durant and the Thunder in five games, the two teamed up to win gold in London in the Olympics.

A lot of people look at LeBron and Durant’s friendship and don’t like it. They want the biggest rivalry in the NBA to be fueled by hatred, not friendship and respect.

Skip Bayless is notorious for speaking his mind in a controversial manner on ESPN’s First Take and had some negative thoughts toward Durant.

“I say once again, Kevin Durant, congratulations you are owned by LeBron James,” Bayless said. “Have fun in next year’s NBA Finals finishing second again.”

Durant responded on Twitter.

via DailyThunder.com

Durant later deleted the tweet which he has done a few times this summer when tweeting his mind on some issues.

Bayless may be correct in his belief that LeBron is supremely confident in his chances vs. Durant in a matchup. He is wrong though in thinking Durant views LeBron as his superior and someone who has his number.

This used to be the case for Durant. LeBron always dominated him in head-to-head matchups. But in the last two seasons, Durant has held his own vs. LeBron, less consistently than LeBron, but still a sign of improvement.

The Thunder beat the Heat twice in the regular season in the last two seasons and then Durant outplayed LeBron in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Durant also said this summer that he believes “his time” is now and that he is essentially ready to become the best player in the NBA.

Durant will get to the point where he is an equal with LeBron every time they play. He’s not quite there yet but working out with LeBron in the summer will only hasten his rise to the King’s level.

Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

LeBron James had one of the best seasons of his life this past year winning his third MVP, his first NBA title and second gold medal at the 2012 Olympics.

LeBron is in his absolute prime right now at age 27 and coming off one of the most dominant individual playoff runs in NBA history. By all accounts, it is LeBron’s time.

It seems like there’s only one player who could eventually take that away from LeBron: Kevin Durant.

“I’ve heard a few times, in three or four years, this league is going to be yours. . . . I don’t like that. Because I think I’m established now. My time is now,” Durant told the Washington Post. “I feel as though I’ve proved myself these last five years that I can be one of the top players in the league. I’ve got a long way to go to being the ultimate best, but I think my time is now. And I’m starting to enter my prime.”

Durant was there with LeBron in London winning gold a few months ago and was also there watching LeBron celebrate in the NBA Finals after Durant’s Thunder lost to the Heat in five games.

It may not quite be Durant’s “time” yet but he is starting to enter his prime. Durant won his third straight scoring title last season and finished second in the MVP voting to LeBron.

How close is Durant to surpassing LeBron as the NBA’s best player? Will he ever?

While Durant is surely going to keep improving from a statistical standpoint over the next 4-5 years, LeBron is more likely on the decline. There is a pretty big gap at least in terms of PER between LeBron and Durant right now so Durant has his work cut out for him to truly catch LeBron. LeBron continues to easily lead the NBA in PER last year at 30.7 while Durant was fourth in the NBA at 26.2.

It works against Durant too that his assists and turnovers have never been very good and he would seemingly need a huge improvement in that area to become the more complete player necessary to catch LeBron. Durant has never had more assists than turnovers in a season so far in his career and last year, averaging 3.5 assists per game, was a career-high for him. It is very plausible though that Durant gets his assists number to around five per game as he has shown improvement in that area lately.

Team success can do Durant a lot of favors in the race to catch LeBron though and the Thunder are in good position to help Durant in that area. OKC should be able to compete for a title for the next four years at least. They are probably in better shape than any other team in the league in that regard. The more trips to the NBA Finals for Durant, the more people will start to put him on the same level as LeBron. Once Durant wins a title then he will be thrust past LeBron.

Four years from now seems to be the logical time when Durant will be the new king of the NBA. LeBron will be 31 and Durant will be 27. Let’s say LeBron is closer to averaging 26-6-7 then while Durant is at 30-5-8 and with better shooting percentages. Durant will be leading the U.S. to gold in the Olympics as the veteran member of the team just like LeBron did this summer and may also have a championship or two under his belt as well.

It’s hard to imagine Durant never catching and surpassing LeBron but you never know. Durant is right then that his time is now. He’s not playing for four years from now. He and the Thunder know they are good enough now to make a run at becoming the class of the NBA.

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

LeBron James has established himself as the clear-cut, best player in the NBA. He’s won three of the last four MVP awards and led the league in PER in each of the last five seasons.

LeBron will head into the 2012-13 season as the frontrunner to win the MVP again but that’s not always a good thing. With the MVP award, voters are always looking for a fresh face or better story to win the award even if they aren’t quite as deserving.

We saw this in 2010-11 when Derrick Rose won the award despite being ninth in the league in PER. He led the Chicago Bulls to the best record in the NBA though doing just about everything for that team and it prevented LeBron from winning his third straight MVP.

So while LeBron has a very good chance to lead the league in PER again this season, he has a lesser chance to win his fourth MVP in five seasons.

Here’s a look at five players who have a chance to steal the award from him.

Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder

Durant has emerged as the consensus second-best player in the NBA. He’s coming off his best season yet in which he led the Thunder to the NBA Finals and he captured his third straight scoring title. He also saw increases in a lot of stat categories including shooting percentage, rebounding and assists. If we see some more all-around improvement from Durant in those areas and the Thunder put together a monster regular season win total, he may very well be in perfect position to win his first ever MVP.

Dwight Howard, Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers made the biggest move of the summer trading for Howard and now they are right up there again as title contenders. Howard has a chance to drastically improve the Lakers and that kind of effect will make him very relevant in MVP talk. He already makes as great an impact as any NBA player in defense. There is a chance though that Howard will miss a large chunk of the season and won’t play until January or February. If that is the case, then his chance at winning are pretty slim.

Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers

Paul is as valuable as any player in the league is to their team. In his first season with the Clippers last year, he led them to the second round of the playoffs and was second in the NBA in PER. He proved himself as one of the most clutch players in the league and seemed to single-handedly drag the Clippers to wins at times. In his second season with the Clippers, we could see a big improvement for the team while Paul remains just as efficient. If they are fighting for the top seed in the West late in the season, expect Paul’s name to come up when discussing the MVP.

Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics

Just when we thought the Celtics were going to roll over and die, they went out and had a pretty good offseason putting together a roster that should still compete for a high seed in the East next season. Rondo has continued to progress as a player and led the league in assists per game last season. He may be poised for a monster regular season as the Celtics now totally hand over the reins of the team to him. We’ve seen the Heat mail it in somewhat the last two regular seasons which may leave the door open for the Celtics to challenge them for the top seed in the East. If they do, then Rondo will get a lot of MVP love next season’s end.

Kevin Love, Minnesota Timberwolves

Love has been making some of the biggest improvements of anyone in the league over the past few seasons. Last year he finished fifth in the league in PER and averaged 26.0 points and 13.3 rebounds per game. He has been in a class by himself throwing up numbers like that. The Timberwolves will need to improve their win total by quite a lot for Love to be considered an MVP candidate but if they do make the playoffs, it will be because Love is playing like an MVP.

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

As LeBron James capped off quite the spectacular year with a gold medal win over Spain in the Olympics, it sparked the most popular debate in the sport of basketball: Who is the greatest player ever?

Jim Boeheim got the ball rolling saying he used to think Michael Jordan was the greatest player ever but after spending six weeks with LeBron, was no longer sure about that.

Then everybody started voicing their opinions.

That’s enough about that though. What I’m curious about is where Kevin Durant fits in with all of this. When his career is over, where will we remember him on the hierarchy of greatest players ever?

Durant just finished his fifth season in the NBA so yes, it’s early on. But he’s already challenging LeBron in some respects and is widely considered the second best player in the NBA right now at just 23 years old. He won his third straight scoring title last season, has finished second in the MVP voting twice and has already led his team to the NBA Finals.

More than any other player in the NBA, Durant was put on earth to play basketball and to score in particular. But he’s not from the same mold as Jordan, LeBron or Kobe so we rarely talk about Durant as someone who could go down as the greatest ever. He’s been more one-dimensional so far in his career too, viewed as just a scorer who isn’t a great passer or defender yet.

Those things are all true and that’s why no one talks about him yet as a potential G.O.A.T. but he still has a very good chance to go down as a top ten or maybe even top five player ever.

Durant’s shot at being remembered that good will have a lot to do with team success. Right now he is part of the best young team in the NBA that is already good enough to compete for an NBA title. It’s easy to look at the Thunder as a team that will be able to compete for a championship for the next decade. They’ve been compared to and are modeled after the San Antonio Spurs, who won four titles in the Duncan era from 1998 until now. If Durant can do the same kind of thing in OKC, he will be remembered in a similar light as Duncan.

Durant also has a chance to go down as a historically great statistical player. He is obviously on pace to score about as many points as anyone ever. Durant’s game is still evolving though so it’s tough to know if he will be able to sustain being such a high-scorer later in his career.

To do this he will have to start going into the post more. He started doing this some last season and even implemented Dirk’s patented stepback jumper. If Durant can learn more from Dirk and develop the kind of post-up game Dirk has had these past few seasons, that would seem the most likely way to keep scoring at the clip he has been.

The top five scorers in NBA history right now are Kareem, Mailman, Jordan, Wilt and Kobe in that order. LeBron has a good shot to get into the top five by the end of his career. If Durant plays long enough, he has a really good chance to pass Malone and get within striking distance of Kareem or wherever Kobe ends up.

The other factor in determining Durant’s greatness is how good of a shooter he is. He has a legitimate chance to go down being remembered as the best shooter to ever play in the NBA. It’s something that isn’t debated about as much really because it’s hard to say what constitutes being the best shooter ever is.

We have Reggie Miller and Ray Allen who are known as the best 3-point shooters ever. Then there’s Bird, Dirk, Maravich and Nash who are often in the conversation. You can even make a case for a player like Steve Kerr as one of the best shooters ever.

Durant could define the debate with what he has a chance to do in his career. To be as skilled as he is at 7-foot tall with the kind of range he has is unprecedented. It would be hard for him to touch Reggie or Ray in terms of career threes made but he has a relatively easy chance to become third on the all-time list (now held by Jason Kidd).

Durant is a career 88 percent free throw shooter as well and shot just under 50 percent from the field last season. If he can string together some 50-40-90 shooting seasons while still scoring as much as he does, it will become tough to argue that he isn’t the greatest shooter ever.

So let’s say Durant wins like three NBA titles, retires as the league’s third all-time leading scorer, top five in points per game for his career and makes the third most threes all-time, that would put him right up there with some of the greats of all-time.

Again, it’s early and that’s a lot of pressure and expectations to meet but I kind of see that as his relatively conceivable ceiling. He’d end up right around Duncan-Shaq-Moses-West in the greatest of all-time rankings. I’d be good with that.

It has been impressive. He looks to be in his absolute prime. But now come the overreactions made possible by the idiots that were considered “haters” before he had won anything.

“I’ve always thought Michael Jordan was the best player that I’ve ever seen,” USA Basketball assistant coach Jim Boeheim said on Colin Cowherd’s radio show yesterday. “I always have and I didn’t think it was close. I’m not so sure any more. And I love Michael Jordan. I’m not so sure anymore.

“This guy is 6-foot-9 and 260 pounds, and he’s getting better. He works on his game. His shooting is getting better. He’s a phenomenal, phenomenal basketball player. I love his game; I love the history of this game. I know we’ve had great, great players through the years. He’s like Magic Johnson with Michael Jordan-type skills as well.”

Where this gets really stupid is at the end and a lot of people have been doing this lately. It’s when you say LeBron is Magic-plus-M.J. Sure, LeBron is a willing passer who gets like half as many assists as Magic and he’s one of the best athletes in the NBA kind of like how M.J. was the best athlete of all-time.

The real problem here though is saying LeBron has the skills Jordan did. What are you defining as skills here? LeBron is very skilled for his size, no one is questioning that, but Jordan was one of the most skilled players in the history of the game. His handle, footwork, shot creativity and defensive fundamentals are all significantly better than what LeBron’s are.

Everything LeBron does is based on his size and speed or his high basketball IQ (probably the highest in the NBA). Those aren’t skills, they’re just physical ability. He’s so different than M.J. the way he gets stuff done on a basketball court.

“He’s a 6-9, 260-pound point guard-forward-center,” Boeheim went on to say. “He guarded the post guys. They always say a guy can guard five positions, I’ve never seen that. I’ve heard about it. This guy can guard five guys. He can guard your center, he can guard your small forward, big forward, point guard, two guard. You put him on anybody and he can guard them.”

People need to stop with this thing where you say LeBron can guard positions 1-5. I understand he is the most versatile defender in the league but it’s not like he’s shutting down Russell Westbrook or Dwight Howard. He can’t guard guys like that. He can guard 2-4 very well and at times can contend with 1’s and 5’s. There, that’s fair.

This is not a knock on LeBron though in any way. The player he is right now is fine which is obvious since he is winning everything right now (that’s part of why the MJ-comparison will always be unfair). The problem is with Boeheim and every person out there who is so obsessed with attaching themselves to greatness, making them feel warm and important inside I guess.

I get the thing where you go to London for two weeks and watch LeBron play the best he ever has and come away thinking he is the greatest thing ever. It’s like whenever you watch any documentary out there and then after think it’s the greatest thing ever. It reels you in and magnifies the importance of whatever it is.

The difference is smart people, or people who think before they talk, should be able to realize this, take a step back and assess the situation. Boeheim was not this when he joined Cowherd’s radio show.

No one should be able to watch LeBron up to this point in his career and say that he is going to become greater than Jordan, or even worse, Magic-plus-Jordan. It just doesn’t make sense to believe that.

I guess there is a scenario out there that is possible just like there is a scenario out there where the 2012 Olympic team “could” beat the 1992 Dream Team if they played. That doesn’t make them greater though.

For what it’s worth, here is how I assess LeBron so far and how I think his career will play out:

Statistically he is on a Wilt-like level so far in his career. He’s been the best player in the NBA for the last three years or so and he will probably continue to be the best for another three or so. A 6-year window of being the best player is pretty hard to do.

I would predict LeBron wins 3-4 championships in his career. That would just about meet expectations. Every time he wins, he should be the Finals MVP too, unless he gets a title or too very late in his career.

Ultimately he will be considered a top eight player of all-time at least. The players probably ahead of him will be: Jordan-Russell-Kareem-Magic-Bird-Wilt-Kobe-Duncan. He’ll be in front of Robertson-Olajuwon-West-Moses-Shaq. I think LeBron could get right around No. 5 best ever, next to Magic and Bird but I doubt we ever consider him top three.

If that makes me a hater then so be it.

FIBA secretary-general Patrick Baumann and his group plan to propose the sport to have it included in the Olympics as early as 2016.

“Like volleyball has beach volleyball, swimming has synchronized swimming, we want three-on-three to be part of it,” Baumann told USA Today.

Baumann said that 3-on-3 would give more countries a chance to be represented in Olympic basketball and help grow popularity of the sport globally. Each country would be responsible for coming up with a way to rank their best 3-on-3 teams and have one represent them.

It’s hard to imagine NBA players would be participating in this. It seems more likely that this would be an Olympic sport where the U.S. always sent amateurs.

It would be interesting to see the kinds of rules that would be set too. Obviously it would be played half court but usually with 3-on-3, there aren’t officials. You call your own fouls and there is far less structure than what there is in every other Olympic sport we currently have.

It seems like this should be further away from happening than the next Olympics, but four years is a long time to get something done.

For fun, imagine the best USA team we could put together. LeBron-Durant-Howard with maybe Rose as a sub. Rubio-Gasol-Gasol would have a tough time getting the gold from that squad.

There has already been a lot of talk regarding the future of USA Basketball. We know that Mike Krzyzewski will not be the head coach although he plans to remain involved with the program to some extent. Doc Rivers, Gregg Popovich and Doug Collins are a few of the names rumored as possible replacements.

A lot of the players from the 2012 team are likely to not return in 2016. Kobe Bryant said that this was his last Olympics and a few others may not be back either. Four years is a long time and players like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul will all be in their 30’s in 2016.

There has also been some talk of the NBA implementing a 23-under age-limit for future United States basketball teams. It is unlikely though that will come into effect until 2020.

If we look at the 2012 roster, there are a few players who are good candidates to be on the team again in 2016: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kevin Love and Anthony Davis seem the most likely. LeBron and Anthony might be the old guys who decide to give it one more run in what would be their fourth Olympics.

That leaves at least five more roster spots assuming no one else returns. Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin are two of the youngest players who would have been playing on this team. They both missed these Olympics due to injury. If chronic injuries become a growing concern for either, they might not be options in 2016 either. Dwight Howard will still be young enough to be an option as well.

A couple of point guards from the Select Team seem like good options in Kyrie Irving and John Wall. Both were former No. 1 picks which often are invited to the team.

Some other hopefuls from the select team include Kawhi Leonard, Greg Monroe and Paul George. Rookies Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Bradley Beal and Harrison Barnes are likely to be candidates as well.

There is also a very high likelihood that there will be a few players to make the 2016 team that aren’t in the NBA just yet. Some names that come to mind are top recruits Nerlens Noel, Shabazz Muhammad and Jabari Parker.

It’s really hard to tell at this point what the roster may look like in four years but here is what I am projecting:

Point guards: Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose, Kyrie Irving
Shooting guards: James Harden, Paul George
Small forwards: Kevin Durant, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kawhi Leonard
Power forwards: Kevin Love, Blake Griffin
Centers: Anthony Davis, Greg Monroe

I think in 2016, we will make sure to send over a team that has more size than the 2012 team had. Love, Griffin, Davis and Monroe will be a good foursome to have banging down low. Of course, Durant can play a lot of the four as well.

Rose and Westbrook will probably start in the backcourt. Irving is going to be a monster by 2016 and Harden will be in the conversation for best shooting guard in the NBA with George right behind him.

MKG will be the Iguodala of the team. MKG is going to be a very well-liked player at this point and considered a kind of glue guy for this team.

Leonard seems like another guy who a lot of people are high on. He was impressive in his rookie season with San Antonio and is expected to increase his role with them going forward.

Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden all won gold for Team USA this past weekend as the team beat Spain 107-100 in the gold medal game. Serge Ibaka would medal as well as he took home the silver playing for Spain.

“I have a gold medal,” Durant told USABasketball.com. “It’s unbelievable, man. I couldn’t sleep last night waiting for the game. I’m glad we came out and got the W.”

The Thunder players got this chance to represent their countries after a long NBA season ending in disappointment when they lost to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.

While there has been a lot of talk about NBA players sacrificing and risking a lot to play in the Olympics, it may have been just what the Thunder players needed.

“I think it’s really helpful for them to play under different circumstances; it only rounds them out as players and makes them better,” Thunder GM Sam Presti told SI.com. “What we observed from the World Championship was just the mental endurance that it takes to go through an international competition and the training camp that leads up to it in medal-round play just to get there.”

Presti also doesn’t have to worry as much about the Thunder players because they are so young. Durant will be 24 next year while the other three are all a year or so younger than him. They can handle throwing in the Olympics in their summer and still have the time to rest some and be ready for next season.

As Durant will tell you, he’d be playing basketball anyway and it might as well be in the Olympics. Basketball has become year round and these guys are used to playing at a high level during their summers.

“Just the level of mental endurance that Kevin and Russell have been exposed to and conditioned themselves to, I think has really helped us in our playoff series,” Presti said. “That’s a real benefit. I think Serge’s experiences with the national team, again just being in different situations and adjusting to different styles of play, it only makes him a more well-rounded player.

“And James now is also getting that level of experience. I really feel like we’ve benefited from all of the exposures that the players have been given, and I think they’re all very grateful for the opportunity too. It’s fun to watch them in these situations.”

Harden playing with the team this time around should really benefit him and the Thunder long-term. He got a chance to be around the best players in the world some more, learn from LeBron and Kobe, and bond some more with his teammates in a once in a lifetime experience.

With extension talks on the horizon for Harden, playing in the Olympics should only increase his desire to stay in OKC.

“Everything,” Harden said when asked what he will take away from the experience. “Every single day it was something different. Especially, like I said, being with these guys. You get to watch them play basketball, you play basketball against them, but once you are the same team you get a feeling for who they are as a person. Every single day was something different and I am just happy to be a part of this team.”

Winning gold is something that surely helped ease the pain of losing in the NBA Finals but the Thunder players were still reminded of it every day. All they had to do was look across the court at LeBron to remember the hurt.

That experience is what will drive them to be better next year. It wasn’t just winning gold on this team but doing it with LeBron and seeing the kind of year he was having. Durant talked about how hard it was to see LeBron every day training for the Olympics because he wants so bad what he has.

It really couldn’t be coming together any better for the Thunder players. Their Olympic experience went about as good as it could have and they are now better for it.

Durant led Team USA in 30 points that game, the most points ever scored by a United States player in a gold medal game. Durant set a U.S. record with 156 points in the 2012 Olympics as well.

Durant wants more gold though.

“We’ll see,” Durant told NBA.com when asked about if he plans to play in the 2016 Olympics. “You never know how these things are going to play out … Hopefully I get a chance to go to the next one.”

There has been talk about a new 23-under age-limit for Team USA and Olympic basketball although it is unlikely that will come into effect until 2020.

We also know that Mike Krzyzewksi will step down as the head coach of Team USA. Kobe Bryant also announced this will be his last Olympics.

Durant and two of his Thunder teammates, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, represented the U.S. this year. Those three are definitely frontrunners to be on the team again in 2016.

Durant would be on pace to become the all-time leading scorer in U.S. Olympic in 2016 if he plays. No. 1 and 2 on that list now are David Robinson and LeBron James, who each needed three Olympics to get to the top of that list.

“I felt like I did it right,” Durant said. “Out of college I had an opportunity to practice with these guys. Then I went into the Select Team process, and being one of the younger guys that was going to be looked at for years to come.

“Being one of the main guys on that 2010 team and then having this opportunity to come in here and compete for a gold medal, it was a long journey for me. Even though it was my first one, it was a long journey. I’m glad I got this opportunity and I’m glad I went through those situations and I’m just happy we got this gold.”

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Los Angeles Lakers pulled off the biggest move of the summer last week when they traded for Dwight Howard. It is a move that will shake up the landscape of the NBA, as is always a case when a player as talented as Howard switches teams.

The Lakers finished the season last year as the 3-seed in the Western Conference behind the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder. Now they are being talked about as potentially the NBA title favorites.

But should we be talking about them already as title favorites?

The Lakers starting five for next season will certainly be an impressive one. They are returning Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace from last year and now adding Howard and Steve Nash.

The pieces should fit in seamlessly. This won’t be a case like we saw in 2011, when LeBron, Wade and Bosh joined together in Miami and it took some time getting used to. Nash’s selflessness will ensure this more than anything.

With Nash running the show, he will get the ball to players when and where they need it. Kobe is at a point in his career where he shouldn’t stand in the way of this too much. Expect a bounce back season from Gasol too now teamed with Nash.

There is some potential for the personalities to not exactly gel. Howard is known as a kind of jokester that doesn’t take things seriously enough. He was able to be this way in Orlando as the clear alpha-dog of the team playing for a franchise that had so much invested in him. No one was going to call him out for that behavior but that will change in L.A. playing alongside Kobe.

There is the question of age too. Nash is 38 and Kobe is an old 33. Both are on the decline but showed last year they can still play at an elite level. It will continue to become harder to sustain that level but playing with Howard will make it easier.

It has been easy to forget just how valuable Howard has been during all of the recent drama. Before Howard ruined his image, he was deservedly so considered one of the most valuable players in the league. The effect Howard had in Orlando was remarkable, leading that team to high playoff seeds and anchoring one of the most efficient defenses in the NBA with little support around him.

Howard did get injured this past season and is expected to miss the beginning of next season. If he can get back to 100 percent, playing at the level he has shown in the past, the Lakers may very well emerge as NBA title favorites.

Of course there are a few teams that would like to have a say in this. The Miami Heat are coming off an NBA championship season last year with LeBron James playing as well as he ever has. The Heat made some noise this offseason too adding Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis to the roster.

In the West, the Thunder, Spurs and Clippers are all returning very formidable teams that will be able to compete with the Lakers. The Thunder got to the NBA Finals with a very impressive playoff run through the West’s elite and are only expected to improve upon that next season with the experience they gained.

We know what to expect from the Heat and Thunder. The Lakers are more of a wild card and that’s why they shouldn’t be called the title favorites just yet. We need to see what they do on the floor first and until then, the league still belongs to the Heat and Thunder.

Kevin Durant led the way scoring 30 points and grabbing nine rebounds in the game. Durant set a U.S. record for most points scored in a single Olympics in the game and also had the most points ever by a U.S. player in a gold medal game.

LeBron James added 19 points becoming just the second player ever along with Michael Jordan to win an MVP, NBA title and gold medal in the same year.

Team USA was pretty dominant for most of the Olympics but Spain made them work for gold, trailing by just one entering the final quarter. Team USA came out hot in the final quarter and would make the big plays when they needed them down the stretch.

Here are the final grades for each Team USA player:

LeBron James – 13.3 PPG, 5.6 APG, 5.6 RPG, 60 FG%, 30 3PT%, 75 FT% – A

LeBron looked like the best player in the world when he wanted to in these Olympics. He came up huge down the stretch of Team USA’s two closest games vs. Lithuania in pool play and Spain in the gold medal game. He silenced any critics with everything he did and has to feel pretty good right now. LeBron showed us nothing new in the Olympics except maybe an overwhelming sense of confidence in everything he did on the floor. He was arguably the most valuable player on the team leading everyone in assists and defending much bigger players for most of the tournament.

Kevin Durant – 19.5 PPG, 2.6 APG, 5.8 RPG, 49 FG%, 52 3PT%, 89 FT% – A

Durant not surprisingly led the U.S. in scoring. He was huge for them in the gold medal game and without his 30, could have easily lost to Spain. His display shooting the shorter three in these games was remarkable. He seemed the most unfair of the Team USA players vs. the international competition. Durant most importantly stepped up his defense as the tournament went on. His length really seemed to bother the international players a lot who aren’t used to seeing someone his size move so agile. Durant produced more consistently than any other player on Team USA in every game and that’s why he deserves just as much as LeBron to be recognized as the team’s MVP.

Carmelo Anthony – 16.3 PPG, 1.3 APG, 4.8 RPG, 54 FG%, 50 3PT%, 79 FT% – A

Anthony made the most noise on this team in their record-setting pool play win over Nigeria. He set a U.S. Olympic scoring record in that game with 37 points and made 10-of-12 threes. It is often said how perfectly Anthony fits into the international game and that was definitely evident again in these Olympics. His shot was on in almost every game as he was less of the isolation player we see him as in the NBA and more of just a catch-and-shoot guy. He came off the bench as Durant started every game but it did not faze him as he embraced the role. Team USA really couldn’t have asked for much more from Anthony.

Kobe Bryant – 12.1 PPG, 1.3 APG, 1.8 RPG, 43 FG%, 44 3PT%, 91 FT% – C

Kobe looked really bad in these Olympics until the medal round when he kind of came alive. Other than Deron Williams, Kobe had the lowest field goal percentage on the team and was a liability on defense as well. He was the old man of this team and that’s exactly what it looked like. He rarely kept up with his teammates on the fast break, never made the right pass when leading a fast break and simply made you start feeling a little sorry for him a lot of the time. Kobe did step up and play better in the medal round and that’s why he isn’t getting an F grade here. The truth is that Team USA would have been much better without Kobe than they were with him.

Chris Paul – 8.3 PPG, 5.1 APG, 2.5 RPG, 51 FG%, 46 3PT%, 50 FT% – A

Paul underratedly had a pretty fantastic Olympics. It was no surprise that he did a good job setting up his teammates in every game and played great defense on opposing point guards, but it was his shooting that really stood out. Paul is a very capable shooter in the NBA but really came through in the Olympics too with his 3-point shot. Deron Williams is considered possibly the better international style point guard but Paul made it clear that Williams is not in his league with his play in these Olympics. Another great job by Paul was that way he let LeBron be the playmaker while on the floor with him, something he is not used to doing in the NBA.

Deron Williams – 9.0 PPG, 4.6 APG, 1.5 RPG, 39 FG%, 40 3PT %, 77 FT% – C+

Williams had a pretty disappointing Olympics for the most part. He was never terrible in the way Kobe was but he definitely underperformed. He could have seen a lot more playing time had he been hitting his shot a little more often. As a result, he ended up barely playing in the gold medal game.

Russell Westbrook – 8.5 PPG, 1.6 APG, 1.6 RPG, 48 FG%, 33 3PT%, 74 FT% – B-

There were some pretty high expectations for Westbrook coming into these Olympics as Kobe and a few others, mentioned that he could play the role Dwyane Wade did back in 2008. Westbrook didn’t do that and playing behind Paul and Williams, he didn’t get a lot of playing time in general. His game is not made for the international style and he didn’t look like he fit in too much. He wasn’t playing point and had the ball much less than he does in the NBA. He made a lot of bad turnovers and didn’t have many assists either. He could have easily played at a level where he demanded more minutes than Kobe but he just didn’t. His greatest value to the team was the pressure defense he put on opposing guards, especially from the weaker teams.

Kevin Love – 11.6 PPG, 0.4 APG, 7.6 RPG, 63 FG%, 36 3PT%, 57 FT% – B+

Love really came on late in the Olympics for Team USA and basically became part of their crunch time lineup. There weren’t many bigs on the roster so the opportunity to find minutes wasn’t hard for Love. All he had to do was rebound, which he did better than anyone else on the team, and make shots, which he struggled with a little. Love clearly didn’t love the FIBA ball and it showed with his low shooting percentages. He still made himself an invaluable part of the team with his rebounding.

Tyson Chandler – 4.0 PPG, 0.4 APG, 4.0 RPG, 70 FG%, 33 FT% – C-

Chandler started every game but only averaged 11.3 minutes per game. He got in a lot of foul trouble and was never anything special on defense either. He was never a liability while on the floor but he definitely underperformed. Even against Spain, when Team USA needed him more than ever to compete with their size, he only played nine minutes. It’s safe to say, Chandler was a huge downgrade from Dwight Howard.

Andre Iguodala – 4.3 PPG, 1.4 APG, 2.8 RPG, 70 FG%, 56 3PT%, 50 FT% – B-

Iguodala didn’t play much either in these Olympics but did a pretty good job while he was out there, you just didn’t notice him much. He shot a high percentage from three but out of a small sample size. He could have been used more in lieu of Kobe for his defense but that was a tough decision Coach K chose to avoid.

James Harden – 5.5 PPG, 0.8 APG, 0.6 RPG, 50 FG%, 30 3PT%, 57 FT% – B-

Harden wasn’t going to play a lot in these Olympics and really didn’t do too good of job in the little time he did play. Whenever he came in, he was going to take a few threes but he only shot 30 percent on them. He had a few really nice dunks but that was about it. With Durant and Anthony shooting so well from distance, there was never a moment for Coach K to look to Harden to come in and provide some outside shooting in a close game.

Anthony Davis – 3.7 PPG, 0.0 APG, 2.7 RPG, 65 FG%, 67 FT% – A

Davis was one of the biggest winners of these Olympics. He got to piggy back on to a team filled with the best talent in the NBA before ever even playing in the NBA, and comes home with a gold medal. Davis was impressive when he was on the floor too. His defensive presence was maybe the best of anyone on Team USA and he clicked very nicely on some lobs with the point guards. He will be a very good NBA player, that’s how you come away feeling about him after watching him play in London.

Mike Krzyzewski gets to ride off into the sunset from his Olympic coaching career, getting his second gold medal and finishing his career as Team USA’s coach with a 62-1 record.

The game was very reminiscent of the 2008 gold medal game. Spain came out playing better than they had all Olympics and trailed by just one point entering the fourth quarter.

Team USA came out great in the fourth though scoring seven quick points. Then LeBron James picked up his fourth foul, came out of the game and Spain remained within striking distance.

When LeBron came back in, he made a backbreaking 3-pointer over Marc Gasol in the same way Kobe Bryant made a huge three four years ago.

LeBron James caps off an amazing year for him that included an MVP, NBA title and now gold medal making him the first player since Michael Jordan in 1992 to do that.

Pau Gasol led Spain with 24 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the game.

The U.S. made the plays they needed to down the stretch. It wasn’t the prettiest win. Each team committed 27 fouls in the game and Spain also battled foul trouble with Marc Gasol picking up four in the first half and sitting the entire third quarter.

The U.S. made 15-of-37 threes in the game while Spain wasn’t as good at 7-for-19. Team USA also held their own on the boards outrebounding Spain and getting 12 offensive rebounds.

With the win, the United States capture their 14th gold medal in Olympic basketball history.

Here are grades for all of the players:

LeBron James – 30 minutes, 19 points, 3 assists, 7 rebounds – B+

It wasn’t LeBron’s best game but he came up big when Team USA needed him scoring five points in the final three minutes. The zone Spain mostly played limited what LeBron did on offense as less of Team USA’s offense ran through him. When he picked up his fourth foul late in the game and had to come out, it looked like Team USA might be in some trouble but they survived.

Kevin Durant – 38 minutes, 30 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist – A

Durant passed Spencer Haywood as the all-time U.S. leading scorer in a single Olympics in this game. Getting 30 from him was huge and very necessary for Team USA to pull out the win. By his standards he was a little off on his shot making 5-of-13 threes in the game. He was better scoring all around in this one and got to the line 10 times, making nine. His defense remained solid as well as he got many deflections and held his own down low.

Carmelo Anthony – 21 minutes, 8 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds – C+

Anthony was nothing special in this game making just 2-of-6 threes. He also got into foul trouble and with him not scoring much, Team USA became really dependant on Durant and Kobe to fill it up, which they did. Anthony was great rebounding on defense in the fourth quarter though while matched up with bigger players.

Kobe Bryant – 27 minutes, 17 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds – A

Kobe had been bad for a lot of these Olympics but really looked pretty good in the medal round, including this game. He hit some big shots early and late and shot a solid percentage. He had a few bad turnovers but luckily that didn’t cost the U.S. the game.

Chris Paul – 33 minutes, 11 points, 2 assists, 3 steals – B+

Paul was a little too passive in this game and could have looked for his shot a little more late. He still hit a big three in the third quarter and made a huge driving layup with 53 seconds left to put Team USA up 104-93.

Deron Williams – 10 minutes, 6 points, 1 assist – C+

Team USA could have used another player to step up and hit some outside shots. Williams made both of his 3-point attempts but didn’t do much else. He didn’t play as much as he had been either with the game pretty close in the second half.

Russell Westbrook – 9 minutes, 3 points, 1 rebound – C+

Westbrook did not play at all in the second half and didn’t make much of an impact in the first half either. Westbrook is a great NBA player but his game didn’t translate too well in these Olympics within this team.

Kevin Love – 19 minutes, 9 points, 9 rebounds – B

Love’s rebounding was huge and he had three offensive boards but his post defense was basically nonexistent. He couldn’t contain the Gasol brothers really at all and that was a big reason why the game was close.

Tyson Chandler – 9 minutes, 2 points, 1 rebound – C

Chandler hardly played again and didn’t even do a good job while he was in as Pau Gasol scored on him a few times. His impact was minimal.

Andre Iguodala – 2 minutes, 1 rebound, 1 turnover – C

Iguodala hardly played too. Even with LeBron in some foul trouble, Coach K went with Kobe playing more minutes instead of some Iguodala.

James Harden – 1 minute, 2 points – C

Harden came in with under a minute to play with the game pretty much in hand. He got fouled twice and went 2-for-4 from the line. Unacceptable.

Anthony Davis – 1 minute, 1 rebound – C

Davis pulled down the final rebound of the game. That has to count for something. Can’t wait to see him in Rio, and the NBA for that matter.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

The United States will take on Spain in the gold medal game at 10 a.m. EST this morning. The U.S. and Spain are meeting in the Olympic gold medal game for the second straight Olympics with the U.S. winning in 2008 118-107.

Team USA and Spain were the two favorites in these Olympics and were expected to meet in this game. The United States rolled through their competition winning all seven games by an average of 35.7 points per game.

Things didn’t go quite as planned for Spain who lost twice in group play to Russia then intentionally to Brazil so as to avoid the United States until the gold medal game. That worked out well for Spain who beat France 66-59 in the quarterfinals then knocked off Russia 67-59 in the semis.

Spain is considered the greatest test for Team USA so far. They may not have looked their best so far in the Olympics but we can expect to see them play their best basketball today.

Pau Gasol is averaging 18.4 points per game to lead Spain while brother Marc is second on the team scoring 12.0 points per game.

Spain will have a significant size advantage vs. the U.S. as they also bring Serge Ibaka off the bench, who is only playing 14.1 minutes per game and averaging 7.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.

Team USA’s lack of size was supposed to be a big weakness for them entering the Olympics but they have made up for it with great 3-point shooting. As a team, the U.S. is shooting .445 percent from three in the Olympics and taking 36.6 threes per game.

Kevin Durant is leading the team averaging 18.0 points and shooting .558 percent from deep. Carmelo Anthony is second on the team at 17.4 points per game while shooting .525 percent from three.

LeBron James has also come on of late for the U.S. notching the first ever triple-double in U.S. Olympic history in the quarterfinals vs. Australia. He’s averaging 12.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and is leading the team with 5.9 assists per game.

Two big factors will decide this game: 3-point shooting and size. Spain is fully capable of outplaying the U.S. in both areas and will need to, to have a chance at winning.

We know they will have the size advantage but they will need to take advantage of it scoring from the post. That will open up the 3-point shot which Spain has struggled with these Olympics shooting it at just .328 percent.

They have some players who can heat up from deep though, most notably Rudy Fernandez and Juan Carlos Navarro. Spain should be able to nullify Team USA’s excellent ball pressure defense with their experienced guards, Jose Calderon and Sergio Rodriguez.

This is the game we have all been waiting for. It’s the only right way to decide the gold medal in basketball, having these two teams play a 40-minute game. The U.S. will be favored and rightfully so but Spain has as good a chance as anyone to pull off the upset.

This will also be the final game as head coach of Team USA for Mike Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski has led the United States to a 61-1 record under him since he took over in 2006 and was there when they won gold in Beijing four years ago. 61-2 would be considered a failure for Coach K.

USA vs. Spain is the gold medal matchup everyone wanted to see. The United States are of course the favorites to bring home gold while Spain has always been considered their greatest competition.

Team USA has won all seven of its games in the Olympics so far by an average margin of 35.7 points per game. Spain has been far less impressive losing twice in pool play and looking weak in each of their last two games in the medal round.

The United States has passed some tests so far, beating Argentina twice and surviving a close scare vs. Lithuania but Spain should still be their toughest battle yet.

Here are five reasons why Spain might upset the United States in the gold medal game.

Spain is bigger

Let’s start with the most obvious one here. Spain has a significant size advantage over the U.S. and they intend to take advantage of it as much as possible. Spain starts the Gasol brothers and then brings Serge Ibaka and Felipe Reyes off the bench.

The U.S. will start Tyson Chandler as their only big and use Kevin Love too but mostly plays LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony at power forward. The U.S. has outrebounded their opponents by over 10 boards per game in the Olympics but that is mostly because they are shooting a far higher percentage.

The U.S. is definitely weak inside as we saw in their games vs. Lithuania and Argentina, when they play without a rim protector their opponent will get a lot of relatively easy looks at the rim.

Spain will pound it inside on offense and pack in their zone on defense. This is closer to the international style and they will have an advantage. Mismatches do go both ways though and Team USA will have to make sure they take advantage by featuring their more skilled forwards in positions where they can be effective against slower, bigger defenders.

3-point shooting

Team USA has lived by the three and they’ve won by it so far in the Olympics. They are attempting 36.6 threes per game and making .445 percent of them. That’s off the charts but there is always a chance even for Team USA to go cold from behind the line tomorrow morning.

Durant and Anthony become very important in this regard as they have led Team USA in 3-point shooting. Durant is shooting .558 percent from three in the Olympics and Anthony .525. They are Team USA’s two leading scorers as well.

Spain has been on the opposite end in terms of 3-point shooting success in the Olympics. They’re shooting just .328 percent as a team with some of their best guys really struggling.

Rudy Fernandez is third on the team in scoring and shooting .367 percent. Juan Carlos Navarro is shooting .333 percent and Jose Calderon .348 percent. Even Pau Gasol has been shooting the three for them, making just 5-for-15 in total.

Spain is fully capable though of heating up from three in any game as they showed in the second half of their semifinal game vs. Russia. They will need to do that and pray that Team USA has an off shooting night to pull off the upset.

40-minute game

The games in these Olympics are eight minutes shorter than NBA games. That means there is greater chance for an upset and less time to erase mistakes made early in the game. Spain is more experience playing this style and will surely try and take advantage of it to the fullest mostly by controlling the pace of the game.

Fortunately for Team USA, Spain hasn’t been getting off to great starts lately and will definitely need to if they plan to win the gold medal. Spain should be up for this game more than any other though and we should see a more concentrated effort from them. Pau Gasol admitted himself that Spain has been looking ahead too much in the Olympics so far. That won’t be the case tomorrow.

Team USA has consistently seen teams play their best games against them, at least for spurts. With the game obviously being close early, Spain should show us their best game from the start. We’ve seen Argentina unable to sustain this for 40 minutes but Spain may be able to.

Officiating

The officials haven’t exactly been on the side of Team USA in these Olympics as per usual. The rules are a little different and there are some things that Team USA will simply never get used to. We’ve seen a lot of Team USA players called for traveling or called for very questionable fouls.

You only get five fouls before fouling out in international play and that could play a huge factor. Chandler will be more important than ever in this matchup vs. Spain but he has in every game gotten into some sort of foul trouble. One would expect that to happen again vs. Spain and that could be very bad news for Team USA.

Team USA players don’t get star treatment either overseas. LeBron and Durant will be asked to defend Spain’s post players some and will be vulnerable to some easy foul calls. If one or both of them has to sit on the bench more than normal, Spain will have that much better of a chance to pull off the upset.

Kobe

Kobe is probably Spain’s best chance for beating Team USA. Kobe has been for the most part pretty horrible in the Olympics although he has been better in the last two games. We know that Kobe will be shooting in the gold medal game and if he’s not hitting, that will put Team USA in a tough spot.

Coach K will more than likely play Kobe at least half of the game and probably more and he will have him out there during crunch time, if there is one. Kobe has the potential to shoot Team USA out of the game or Spain into the game if he looks like the Kobe we saw in pool play.

The same goes for Anthony as well. Both he and Kobe are going to take shots, probably a lot of bad ones, and if they’re not falling, Spain will be that much closer to Team USA.

The margin for error will be the smallest for Team USA tomorrow morning. They’ve been able to overcome their imperfections so far but Spain is the real test.

Team USA led 47-40 at halftime after Manu Ginobili hit a three to end the first half. Ginobili came out strong from the start but slowed down late, finishing with 18 points in the game.

The U.S. shot 53.1 percent from the field and made 18-of-42 threes. They pulled away from Argentina again much like their last meeting with a big third quarter led by LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

Spain beat Russia in their semifinal earlier today and hasn’t looked great so far in these Olympics but still should be considered the toughest test yet for Team USA.

Here are grades for the U.S. players:

LeBron James – 29 minutes, 18 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds – A

LeBron played another brilliant game doing a little bit of everything. Coming off the first triple-double in U.S. Olympic history in the quarterfinals vs. Australia, LeBron flirted with another one today. He went 8-of-12 from the field and was excellent finding open shooters all game long.

Kevin Durant – 27 minutes, 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks – B+

Durant led the U.S. in scoring thanks to his five 3-pointers, four of which came in the third quarter. Durant was better again with his interior defense and picked up a few blocks. He really didn’t look to be shooting well early in the game before getting a few to go down in a row in the third.

Carmelo Anthony – 22 minutes, 18 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists – B+

It was Anthony’s turn to put on the 3-point show in the second half of this game. He hit a few in a row and then a really deep one reminiscent of Durant’s the last time Team USA played Argentina. He made a few nice extra passes that he normally doesn’t which resulted in a little more balanced of a game in this one.

Kobe Bryant – 19 minutes, 13 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals – B+

Kobe did his work at the beginning of this game after doing it in the second half of the last one. He came out hot making three 3-pointers in the first half and was pretty quiet after that. You know Kobe is going to take shots no matter what. He’s good when they’re going down but has been terrible when they’re not.

Chris Paul – 26 minutes, 10 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds – A

Paul just plays so good every game. He went 2-of-3 from deep and that’s just gravy with him. He had a pretty high assist total too as he always makes the smart play.

Deron Williams – 20 minutes, 6 points, 6 assists – B

Williams only shot 2-of-7 from deep which puts him well below Team USA’s average shooting percentage on threes. Coach K tried to use him more as Argentina played a lot of zone and Williams didn’t do anything special. The six assists were nice though.

Russell Westbrook – 9 minutes, 7 points, 1 turnover – B

Westbrook played with good energy again and was a little more under control in this one. All three of his baskets were nice. The first came on a good drive in the first half. Then he hit a three in the second half and got one of his patented pull-up jumpers to go down too. He came up lame with what appeared to be a leg injury late in the fourth. It didn’t look too serious and for a guy who has never missed a basketball game in his life, it’s hard to get worried.

Kevin Love – 16 minutes, 9 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block – A

Love was very big today especially with his work on the glass getting four offensive rebounds. As Team USA continued to shoot the three when seeing zone, Love was there to help get them second shot opportunities whenever he was in. He was 0-for-2 shooting the three himself but his impact was hard not to notice.

Tyson Chandler – 12 minutes, 4 points, 3 rebounds – B

Chandler didn’t play much again but did just fine while he was out there. He had a nice slam in the second half from a Paul feed and was his usual solid self on defense. Picked up three fouls though.

Andre Iguodala – 11 minutes, 2 points, 1 assist – B

Iguodala found out last night he was being traded to the Denver Nuggets so maybe he felt a little weird for the game. He played fine while he was out there though and had a nice highlight reel alley-oop finish from Paul late in the game.

James Harden – 5 minutes, 3 points, 1 steal – B

I could have sworn Harden hit two threes in this game. One of them rolled around the rim some and may have been credited to Love for a tip-in. His shot looked good and he even had a nice block in transition from behind on a player.

Anthony Davis – 4 minutes, 1 rebound – C

Just very little garbage time for Davis again and he didn’t touch the ball.

The U.S. most recently beat Argentina 119-86 in the final game of pool play. In that game, Team USA led just 60-59 at halftime before putting together an incredible third quarter as they pulled away for the blowout win.

Argentina is still fully capable of beating the U.S. though. Argentina got past Brazil 82-77 in the quarterfinal behind 17 points from Luis Scola and 16 from Manu Ginobili and Carlos Delfino.

Those three players will have to be big again against the U.S. if Argentina has plans to upset Team USA. Ginobili led Argentina with 16 points the last time they played the U.S. with 14 of those points coming in the first half.

Scola played just 18 minutes vs. the U.S. in that game and had 11 points. Delfino had 13 and was 2-of-7 shooting from three while Andres Nocioni had 12 and made 2-of-4 threes.

Argentina went 10-for-26 from three in that game and will have to do better today. The U.S. led by Kevin Durant’s eight threes, hit 20-of-39 in that game.

The case can be made that Argentina wouldn’t have benefitted from beating Team USA on that day and, as international teams often think, would rather save themselves to try and beat the U.S. in the game that matters today.

We can expect a spirited effort from Argentina in this one as they should play more of a complete game, unless the U.S. goes into that unbeatable mode they’ve shown a few times in these Olympics.

The game should be a chippy one as well. Argentina always seems to get under the skin of the U.S. and did again in the last game in particular when Facundo Campazzo gave Carmelo Anthony a little tap below the belt on his way down after shooting a three to end the third quarter.

Pablo Prigioni, Argentina’s starting point guard, did not play in the last game vs. Team USA either and will surely make a big difference for them today. Prigioni was instrumental in Argentina’s win over Brazil leading the team with six assists.

Durant emerged as the unfair player to contend with for Argentina in the last game scoring 28 points and making eight threes. We have seen multiple players step up in that role for the U.S. in these Olympics, whether it’s Durant, Anthony, LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, who made six threes in Team USA’s quarterfinal win over Australia.

Team USA’s reliance on the 3-point shot is one of the things that could lead to their downfall in this tournament. They are attempting 35.7 threes per game and making .449 percent of them but if they fall to a realistic percentage under 40, they could be vulnerable to being upset.

The U.S.’s continued struggling interior defense could also be an issue today, especially dealing with Scola who is averaging 19.7 points per game in the Olympics to lead Argentina. Team USA has been better lately with their defensive intensity and LeBron and Durant have been decent containing other teams’ bigs but Scola will again be a big challenge today.

The U.S. will be favored today and rightfully so. They have shown throughout these Olympics that despite some of their flaws, they are talented enough to beat anyone at any time. Their familiarity with Argentina should benefit the U.S. too as the element of surprise in a 40-minute game can sometimes be a big factor contributing to an upset.

The other semifinal game today will be between Russia and Spain at noon EST.

The United States is 6-0 so far in these Olympics winning games by an average margin of 37.3 points per game. They have been dominant but not perfect or without flaws.

The Team USA roster isn’t exactly the one envisioned by Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski. They are small without Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh or LaMarcus Aldridge and also missing a few other stars in Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose.

The only three bigs on the roster for Team USA are Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love and Anthony Davis. Chandler has been barely playing largely due to foul trouble, Love has emerged of late and Davis only sees the floor in garbage time.

It has resulted in a lot of Team USA’s players playing out of position, mainly LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony who are playing the four and five positions primarily.

We’ve seen a lot of different lineups and rotations so far from Coach K as he still sometimes seems to be looking for the right grouping of five guys.

Team USA has done fine despite this so far and has won games because of their superior depth and talent. Now in the semifinals and playing Argentina for the third time in as many weeks, and Spain or Russia looming as a gold medal matchup, the United States may need to shrink their rotation some and find their best lineup.

What is the best 5-man lineup for Team USA?

We know it’s not the starting five of Paul-Kobe-LeBron-Durant-Chandler. They’ve gotten off to a few slow starts and with Chandler barely playing and Kobe’s struggles, this surely hasn’t been their strongest group.

The first sub is always Anthony coming in for Chandler as Team USA immediately goes small. This isn’t their best lineup either because Kobe, who hasn’t gelled well with this team at all, is still out there.

It’s usually Deron Williams and Russell Westbrook who enter next for Paul and Kobe. Now we’re getting warmer. Williams is arguably the better international point guard than Paul and Westbrook has been an upgrade from Kobe in a lot of instances as well.

But Team USA is still pretty vulnerable inside when Anthony and Durant are out there together and it’s not as if they work so great together on offense either. You probably only need one of them on the floor at a time, simply to focus more on defense.

Love is the final piece here and next sub in. He usually comes for Durant or LeBron at this point but Team USA’s best lineup definitely involves Durant and LeBron on the floor together.

Of the lineups that have played a good amount of minutes together so far in these Olympics, Team USA’s best is Paul-Williams-LeBron-Durant-Love.

The combining of Paul and Williams works well and Paul simply is playing at a higher level than Westbrook right now, fitting in more with the team too. Love has been a beast on the glass of late too, really establishing himself as a force down low while LeBron and Durant are good enough to hold their own on bigger defenders as well.

That is the best lineup we will see from Team USA going forward. The challenge for Coach K will be seamlessly removing Kobe from the floor to go with a lineup like this in crunch time. It probably won’t happen and Kobe and/or Anthony will be on the floor instead of Williams or Love.

The best lineup for Team USA is perhaps one we will never see and is totally different from the identity they’ve shown so far in the Olympics. It involves and basically highlights Davis in at center.

Davis has been a monster in the little time he has played swatting shots like nothing and rebounding very well too. He has also really meshed with Paul and the other guards, rolling to the rim and finishing alley-oops.

Team USA would be at their best going Williams-LeBron-Anthony-Durant-Davis. They’d have plenty of size and could use Williams running the point as well as LeBron. This would free up LeBron a little more to get out and run on the wings, really maximizing the potential of Team USA’s transition game.

It’s fun to think about different lineups with Team USA and this one in particular, but we probably won’t see it at all, even if it might be their best look. Instead, Team USA will have to try and win gold not with, but despite someone like Kobe, while more deserving players in Love and Davis watch from the sidelines.

The United States did not come out looking their best but were very impressive in the fourth quarter, going on one of their signature runs outscoring Australia 35-16 in the period.

The U.S. took 46 threes in the game and made 19, which is the third-most 3-point makes they’ve had in a game in the Olympics.

Australia hung around due to another big game from point guard Patty Mills who scored 26 points and made four threes.

Here are the grades for each Team USA player:

LeBron James – 30 minutes, 11 points, 12 assists, 14 rebounds – A+

LeBron had maybe his best game of the Olympics so far getting the triple-double and doing a little bit of everything for Team USA. He has really played well in these past three games after coasting in the first three. His 12 assists ties Michael Jordan and a few others for the most ever in a U.S. Olympic basketball game.

Kevin Durant – 25 minutes, 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals – B

Durant was mainly just a spot-up shooter in this game making 4-of-9 threes. Shooting 44 percent from three is fine but for Durant, it felt like he struggled. He missed a few shots driving and didn’t get to the line at all. His defense was better again getting two steals and some deflections as well.

Carmelo Anthony – 20 minutes, 17 points, 4 rebounds – B

Anthony played a pretty normal game for him. He was nothing special from deep going 2-of-7 and has really just become a guy who does nothing but try and score when the ball finds him. There’s nothing wrong with that because it’s his role on this team.

Kobe Bryant – 20 minutes, 20 points, 3 assists, 2 steals – B+

Kobe continued his awful play in the first half going 0-for-3 with zero points. You started to feel bad for him as it seemed he couldn’t do anything right. Then he really heated up in the second half, making six threes and finishing with 20 points. His threes come with a grain of salt though which requires him to take the 25-foot, contested heat check whenever he hits one or two. Team USA will need him at least making his jump shot going forward in the medal round.

Chris Paul – 27 minutes, 7 points, 3 assists, 4 steals – B

Paul didn’t do too much in this one partly because LeBron really dominated as the team’s distributor. Paul was only 1-for-4 from deep too and didn’t exactly lock up Australia’s guards on the other end the way he is capable of.

Deron Williams – 22 minutes, 18 points, 3 rebounds – A

Williams came up big in the first half for the U.S. scoring 13 points. Tonight he was the example of Team USA’s depth showing that they have so many players who can get it going scoring. With Paul not hitting his shot so much, it was nice for Williams to step up.

Russell Westbrook – 11 minutes, 6 points, 1 assist, 4 fouls – C

Westbrook got in foul trouble and didn’t play much. He was out of control for the most part again and not in any kind of rhythm. When he has space and can show off his athleticism, he is at his best and in the international game, there’s less room for him. The foul trouble limited his effectiveness in being one of Team USA’s best on-ball defenders.

Kevin Love – 21 minutes, 10 points, 11 rebounds – A

Love was great again and with Chandler not doing much, he is becoming very key for this team. His work on the glass was relentless as always but he did not hit any threes. He should continue to see more minutes especially if Team USA sees Spain in the gold medal game.

Tyson Chandler – 9 minutes, 6 points, 2 rebounds – C+

Chandler barely played again because of some foul trouble and was his usual self while on the floor. He caught a few nice lobs which were pretty but that’s about it.

Andre Iguodala – 8 minutes, 3 points, 1 rebound – C+

Iguodala didn’t play much either which was a little surprising coming off a very good game vs. Argentina. He hit a three while he was in and probably would have played more if Williams didn’t have the hot hand or if Kobe never got going. Team USA’s defense wasn’t great again and having Iguodala on the floor would help that out some.

James Harden – 4 minutes, 7 points, 1 assist – A+

Harden couldn’t have been better in four minutes, finishing on the break with two highlight slams and making a stepback three as well. It would have been nice to see him get more minutes with this team but it’s just not going to happen except in blowouts.

Anthony Davis – 3 minutes, 0 points, 3 rebounds – C

Davis just played a few minutes in garbage time and went 0-for-3 from the field. Come on bro.

Team USA was played very close by Argentina in the first half and led by only one point at halftime.

Team USA came out much stronger in the third quarter and ran away with the game behind a spirited performance by LeBron James and Kevin Durant who combined for 26 points in the third quarter alone.

Durant scored 28 points in the game and made 8-of-10 threes including this one to beat the buzzer in the first quarter.

Durant’s defense in the third quarter was most impressive though. He was all over the floor making deflections and getting steals that led to a lot of offense for Team USA. Here he makes a nasty steal and LeBron finds rewards Durant with the sweet dish for a dunk on the fast break.

Russell Westbrook would put the finishing touches on this win with this ridiculous slam dunk over Argentina big man Leo Gutierrez. The dunk was reminiscent of what Vince Carter did 12 years ago in the Sydney Olympics vs. France.

Team USA begins play in the medal round today vs. Australia in the quarterfinals. The game will tip at 5:15 p.m. EST and will air on the NBC Sports Network.

The United States looked great in their first three games then were brought back down to reality after that. Their 83-point win over Nigeria may have made them relax a little too much and it showed in a lack of defensive intensity vs. Lithuania and in the first half vs. Argentina.

The U.S. would beat Argentina in their last game of pool play after leading 60-59 at half time. They came out in the second half a different team on defense, much more active with a lot of energy and blew out Argentina in the third quarter, 42-17.

Team USA’s last two games served as a wakeup call for them and we should see the more focused team that dominated Argentina in the second half going forward in the medal round.

Australia is led by San Antonio Spurs point guard Patty Mills who averaged 20.2 points per game in pool play. He has been a kind of one man show for Australia though and took a lot of shots to get those points.

Mills hit one of the biggest shots in Australian basketball history in their last game, drilling a buzzer-beating 3-pointer vs. Russia to give Australia the upset 82-80 win.

Beyond Mills, Australia will have a very tough time matching up with the U.S. They are without Andrew Bogut who suffered an injury last year in the NBA. They feature no other familiar NBA names on the roster.

Kevin Durant led Team USA in scoring in pool play averaging 18.6 points per game to go with 5.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists. He shot .606 percent from downtown as well including going 8-of-10 vs. Argentina.

Carmelo Anthony was second on the team averaging 17.4 points per game and shot .600 percent from three. Anthony was highlighted of course by his U.S. Olympic record 37-point performance vs. Nigeria.

LeBron James essentially coasted in Team USA’s first three games before turning it on in the last two. LeBron came alive late vs. Lithuania, scoring nine of Team USA’s final 12 points to finish with 20. LeBron then scored 18 vs. Argentina and had a huge third quarter.

The likes of Durant, Anthony and LeBron will be impossible for Australia to match up with. Team USA should do a very good job containing Mills as well with Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Russell Westbrook.

Australia has surprised somewhat in the Olympics so far so don’t expect them to roll over and die. They will fight hard against the U.S. but it’s hard to imagine it mattering much at all.

If the U.S. wins, they will play the winner of Argentina and Brazil who play before them at 3:00 p.m. EST.

The U.S. was challenged in the first half vs. Argentina and only led 60-59 at halftime. Then in the third quarter Team USA came out a different team especially on the defensive side of the ball and outscored Argentina 42-17 in the third alone.

LeBron James and Kevin Durant led the United States in that period. LeBron became more assertive on offense scoring nine quick points then Durant took over, reigning in the threes for 17 points to get him to his game-high 28.

“Anybody in their right mind, when [Durant] gets to shooting the ball like that, there’s only one play,” Chris Paul told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “Get the ball to him.”

Durant has definitely stood out in the Olympics so far averaging 18.6 points per game to lead Team USA while shooting .606 percent from downtown. But has he been Team USA’s MVP so far? There are a few other players who’d like to make their case.

LeBron James – 11.6 PPG, 4.4 APG, 3.4 RPG (61 FG%, 33 3PT%, 80 FT%)

LeBron hasn’t had to do much for Team USA thus far in the Olympics. But in the last two games against Lithuania and Argentina he stepped up and made his presence known as one of the leaders of this team. He scored nine of Team USA’s final 12 points vs. Lithuania as they won that game 99-95 and he led a spirited third quarter charge vs. Argentina. Through pool play though he hasn’t consistently been Team USA’s best player, even though that was probably by choice. We can definitely expect LeBron to continue to step up once the medal round starts though.

Carmelo Anthony – 17.4 PPG, 0.8 APG, 4.6 RPG (59 FG%, 60 3PT%, 80 FT%)

Anthony had the biggest game of the Olympics so far during Team USA’s 83-point blowout vs. Nigeria, he set a U.S. Olympic record with 37 points and went 10-of-12 from deep in the game. Anthony has been great in his instant offense role off the bench and hasn’t been shy about jacking up shots. Anthony wasn’t on the floor late vs. Lithuania though because of his defense. On this team he has been asked to guard bigger players and hasn’t exactly done the best job. He’s been pretty one-dimensional for Team USA and that’s why he isn’t their MVP so far.

Chris Paul – 7.6 PPG, 5.8 APG, 3.0 RPG (52 FG%, 47 3PT%, 0 FT%)

Paul has gone under the radar for the most part in these Olympics but really played well in Team USA’s last two games which were so close. There was a belief before the Olympics began that maybe Deron Williams was the better international point guard for this team but Paul has definitely separated from him. He’s shooting great from 3-point land as well and has come up big in some clutch moments. But it hasn’t been enough to outshine the MVP of Team USA so far…

Kevin Durant – 18.6 PPG, 3.8 APG, 5.6 RPG (52 FG%, 61 3PT%, 88 FT%)

It’s close but Durant is my pick for the MVP of Team USA in pool play. He has been the most consistent scorer and his 3-point shooting has been off the charts even for him. The 3-point shooting is magnified even more because of Team USA’s reliance on the shot. His defense has been pretty good too, especially in the third quarter vs. Argentina when he was all over the floor making deflections left and right. Durant’s length has really bothered Team USA’s opponents making him just fine to have on the floor late as a reliable defender. If not for LeBron’s chill play in the first few games, maybe he would have emerged as Team USA’s MVP so far but you can’t overlook how Durant has played so far.

The U.S. led by just one at halftime 60-59 as Argentina was doing a lot of what Lithuania did to the U.S. in the first half.

Manu Ginobili was on a tear scoring 16 points on just five shots as Argentina shot 56 percent from the field.

In the third quarter, Team USA came out a different team especially on the defensive side of the ball. LeBron James had a look in his eye scoring nine quick points then Kevin Durant took over.

Durant hit five threes in the third quarter and scored 17 points as the U.S. outscored Argentina 42-17 as a team. Durant capped off his memorable third quarter performance with a three from about 32-feet that was very reminiscent of Rucker Park.

Team USA again looked vulnerable at times but when they turned it on in the second half they showed why they are the team to beat in these Olympics.

Here are the grades:

LeBron James – 21 minutes, 18 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds – A

LeBron was quiet in the first half as not a lot of the offense was running through him but he really asserted himself in the third quarter. He has taken over when he has needed to for this team in these Olympics and did it again today. He had to sit though midway through the third after picking up his fourth foul. He got called on a few really bad fouls in the game.

Kevin Durant – 22 minutes, 28 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals – A

Durant was magnificent in the third quarter not only by hitting five treys but on the defensive end he was as active as he ever has been. That led to a lot of Team USA’s offense as they pulled away. Durant wasn’t too bad in the first half either scoring 11 points and hitting three 3-pointers. Durant’s shooting performance in the third quarter may have been more impressive than what Carmelo Anthony did vs. Nigeria.

Carmelo Anthony – 13 minutes, 5 points, 5 rebounds – C

Anthony didn’t have it tonight going just 1-for-6 from the field but his one make was a big three to end the third. He got a little cheap shot from Argentina point guard Campazzo after making the trey he was hit below the belt and it started a little scrum between the two teams.

Kobe Bryant – 21 minutes, 11 points, 1 assist – C-

Kobe just seems to not fit in much with this team. He randomly started pushing the ball down the court out of control twice in the third quarter and it just felt weird. He shot 3-of-10 in the game and is still struggling with the different ball it seems. The fact that he’s probably going to be on the court in crunch time of a close game may not be a good thing for Team USA going forward.

Chris Paul – 25 minutes, 17 points, 6 assists, 3 steals – A

Paul was great in the first half hitting four threes and did his job pretty much perfectly the rest of the game too. You can’t hardly ever complain about Paul and when he is making threes he is just that much better. He really hounded Campazzo on defense too who had to play most of the game with Prigionni missing the game with an injury.

Deron Williams – 15 minutes, 5 points, 3 assists – C

Nothing special from Williams tonight as he was 2-for-7 from the field. Paul played much better and got the bulk of the minutes. Team USA will need Williams to step up and shoot better from three as the games continue.

Russell Westbrook – 19 minutes, 4 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds – B-

He would receive a C grade if not for his nasty dunk in the fourth quarter. Westbrook was out of control for the most part again going 1-for-8 from the field but his dunk was such a perfect exclamation mark on the game. His defense against Argentina’s weak guards was pretty good too.

Kevin Love – 15 minutes, 13 points, 9 rebounds – B+

Love quietly had a very nice game for Team USA going 5-for-7 from the field and grabbing four offensive boards as well. His confidence has grown of late and he is becoming a more integral part of this team which is good with Tyson Chandler not playing all that well.

Tyson Chandler – 12 minutes, 3 points, 5 rebounds – B

Chandler wasn’t as bad as he has been lately in this one and was the only real defensive presence for Team USA in the first half. The defense Team USA played in the second half showed why they won’t need to rely on Chandler to play a lot of minutes in the future. Chandler was in foul trouble again though and mostly takes up space on offense.

Andre Iguodala – 20 minutes, 13 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists – A

Iguodala played his role perfectly today. He got some scoring on not a lot of shots, always made the right pass and rebounded. When he plays like this he will get minutes and deservedly so.

James Harden – 9 minutes, 7 points – C+

Harden didn’t play until garbage time in this one and was fine while he was out there. He hit 1-of-2 threes and went 3-for-5 from the field.

Anthony Davis – 8 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block – C+

Davis also didn’t play until garbage time and had less alley-oop dunks than usual.