Durant stays No. 1, Paul George and Brook Lopez enter MVP rankings

RANK	PLAYER	RUNDOWN	LAST
1		KEVIN DURANT, F, OKLAHOMA CITY: After that 52-point outburst against the Nuggets, KD now trails Kobe Bryant for the league scoring lead by just four-tenths of a percentage point. And, it should not go without saying, the guy is hitting at a 52 percent rate from the field, which is sick. Has gone 40 or more in three of the last five, and OKC remains a hair above LAC for first place in the West.	1
2		CHRIS PAUL, G, LA CLIPPERS: You do not lose points for sitting out a couple games in a row because of an injury, which is why CP3 is still holding the No. 2 spot despite missing a trio of games and giving us an extended look at Eric Bledsoe, who is profiled here by new site columnist Brian Kamenetzky, who has joined the good ship SheridanHoops along with his brother, Andy. They will be writing every Wednesday on all four California teams. ICYMI, CP3 returned Saturday night and closed out Wiz late in 4th	2
3		LeBRON JAMES, F, MIAMI: When is a 3-3 road trip a good road trip? When your stud shoots 17-for-25 with 8 assists and 39 points, and your defense shuts out Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and Co. in the final 2 1/2 minutes, and you close that six-game trip with two admirable wins. Dude shot 50 percent or better on every one of the six games, with the exception of the night in Portland when he scored just 15 — the only game this season in which he has been helped below 20 points. For inquiring minds who want to know, Durant has been sub-20 three times.	5
4		CARMELO ANTHONY, F, NEW YORK: Hard to make much of a one-week stretch in which he played just one game against the lowly Detroit Pistons, in London no less, so we’ll let him keep his No. 4 spot both to back up our opening few paragraphs and to make the point that the Knicks trail the Heat by just one game in the loss column. One. And if this team wins the East, and wins it by a significant margin, that is going to swing some first-place votes ‘Melo’s way. Remember, there is a ton of East Coast bias in the voting (which is why Tyson Chandler, not Serge Ibaka, is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year).	4
5		TONY PARKER, G, SAN ANTONIO: Maybe they should call him Ten-Man after what he did in five of the last six games — produced exactly 10 buckets per game. Leads all NBA guards in field goal percentage at .516. D-Wade is the only other guard over 50 percent at .506. Not a lot to quantify his drop, so we’ll just point out that Mickael Gelabale had a better Saturday night among Frenchies.	3
6		LUOL DENG, F, CHICAGO: Two things you can count on: He will not get a single first-place vote for MVP, even from Sam Smith; and he will be playing in the All-Star game in Houston after the Eastern Conference coaches vote him in. He is the No. 1 shoo-in among non-starters from the East. Oh, and the Bulls are only 4 back in the loss column behind Miami, they’ve owned New York, and they are the No. 1 team that scares Knicks uber-fan and Miami radio host Sid Rosenberg, as he told us in this broadcast.	7
7		TIM DUNCAN, F-C, SAN ANTONIO: Our infatuation with his free throw shooting (.821) will pay dividends for our readers in the coming days. (Sunday marks Day 40 since he has missed more than one FT in a game). And unlike Deng, he may, in fact, garner a first-place vote or two when the ballots go out in early April. Best season he’s had in years.	9
8		PAUL GEORGE, G-F, INDIANA: Hoosier nation, we have been paying you too little attention. and frankly, y’all can’t be all that happy with Notre Dame continuing to steal the state spotlight from y’all even after their season ended with a decisive loss in the NCAA football championship game. But rest assured we are nearly as impressed with what Frank Vogel has done with the Pacers as we are with what Tom Thibodeau has done with the Bulls. No, Danny Granger is not as crucial to his team as Rose is to his, but it is close.	–
9		BROOK LOPEZ, C, BROOKLYN NETS: Whoever put him on the nasty diet, please continue to do so. As we discussed with Charles Barkley, you can’t affix a soft label to this guy anymore. And with the Nets playing much more uptempo under P.J. Carlesimo, Lopez has become an added threat with his good hands in transition and by converting second-chance opportunities that did not exist under Avery Johnson. Has been more valuable to Nets than Deron Williams, without a doubt.	9
10		KOBE BRYANT, G, LA LAKERS: I’ve left him off before, and I may yet leave him off again. Just not this week. Axe instead falls on dropouts listed below.	7