On December 14, Beijing time, the NBA officially announced: Sabonis Jr. and James won the 8th Week East and West Best Players! James led the Lakers to 3-1 last week, and he himself averaged 28.3 points, 7.5 boards and 8 assists per game. James wrote on social media: "Wait a minute, everyone thinks I'm done? "The Lakers are currently sixth in the West with 15 wins and 13 losses.
A third of the season has been played in the regular season, ESPN did a mock MVP vote last week on the performance of players: Curry had 94 first votes + 4 second votes + 2 third votes, and the total score of 978 points was high in the first place. The vote was organized by ESPN and voted by a total of 100 media people.
Durant (610 points) and Alphabet Brother (471 points) also had 100 votes, but they had fewer first votes, so they ranked second and third. Jokic finished fourth with 256 points, Paul fifth with 160 points, DeRozan with 61 points for sixth, Butler and Booker (26 points) tied for seventh, Doncic ninth, Trae Young tenth and George eleventh.
As you can see from the first image, a total of 14 players received votes, one each for Embiid, LaVine and Mitchell. The voting result is similar to the latest issue of the NBA's official MVP list, the top five are Curry, Durant, Alphabet Brother, Jokic and Paul. This is the first time that ESPN has received 0 votes since ESPN did mock voting in the 2016-17 season.
The ballot papers were issued on December 3, local time, December 6, and the results of the polls were announced on December 10. On December 11, James had 33 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks against the Thunder. On December 13, James led the Lakers to beat the Magic, he had 30 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and 3 blocks!
On December 13, 2002, James led St. Mary's defeat of Oak Hill High School 65–45 in St. Vincent. Zhan Jr. shot 12-of-25 and had 31 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists, which was the first time in his basketball career that he had broadcast live in the United States. Exactly 19 years on, his performance has been as steady as ever. James and Anthony's friendship also began 19 years ago.
In the past 8 games, James has scored 30+ in 6 games, and his last 8 games are: 39+6+5; 30+11+7; 33+9+5; 23+6+11; 30+5+4; 20+11+10; 33+6+5; 30+10+11, during which the Lakers won 5 wins and 3 losses, and the old Zhan averaged 29.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 8 assists per game, shooting 52%!
James has delivered seven blocks in the last three games, and the Lakers' defensive attitude has also improved, averaging just 103 points per game in the last three games (111 points for the entire season). James has played in 16 games this season, scoring 30+ in eight games, tied for sixth in the league. Durant and Trae Young both have 30+ in 11 games, tied for first place in the league, playing 25 and 26 games respectively.
James has averaged 26.2 points, 6.1 boards, 7.1 assists, 1.8 steals, 0.9 blocks, shooting 50.6 percent from the field, 35.2 percent from three-point range and 76.7 percent from the free throw line this season. The number of steals and free throw shooting is a new high in the last nine seasons, and the number of blocks is a new high in the past 11 seasons. If ESPN organizes a vote now, James won't get 0 votes, right?
James is 112.3th in the league and 196th in the league in defensive efficiency of 109.3 this season, and his efficiency on the court is indeed not as good as when he was younger. But throughout the history of the NBA, how many stars have been able to play the same performance as Old Zhan at the age of 37? If the Lakers have a better record, James is still one of the candidates for MVP.