Kevin Durant running away with MVP award?

RANK	PLAYER	RUNDOWN	LAST
1		KEVIN DURANT, F, OKLAHOMA CITY: Last night’s win over Portland made the Thunder 9-5 since Russell Westbrook went down. They’ve got a four-game win streak (second-longest right now behind Indiana’s five), and KD’s point totals over that span are 36, 54, 30 and 46. In the past three games, he is 45-of-68 — a .676 shooting percentage. And this despite every single D he faces keys on him.	1
2		PAUL GEORGE, G-F, INDIANA: Mr. November continues to rediscover his mojo, and the 360-degree dunk he threw down against the Clippers is a lock to make everybody’s top 5 of the season. His last four games are 31, 25, 36 and 23 points while knocking down 16-of-28 3-pointers. Indiana now has a 4 1/2 game lead on Miami, its largest of the season.	4
3		LeBRON JAMES, F, MIAMI: Another scene from Hard Rock: Faces of disbelief as the Celtics hung with the Heat through 46 minutes before the inevitable happened. Yes, it was nice to see him at the White House again with good pal President Obama, whose wife is quite the dunker herself. But this lollygagging-through-the-season thing is getting old. You don’t see the Pacers losing to the Knicks, Nets, Wizards and Hawks, or needing OT to beat the Bobcats.	2
4		TONY PARKER, G, SAN ANTONIO: We’ve seen this movie before. We fixate on rising stars, from Durant to Stephen Curry to Blake Griffin to James Harden. Then we check the standings and see the Spurs atop the West. This is probably Year 6 or 7 of TP being their best player, with no disrespect toward Tim Duncan. Giving the rest of the West hope is their 1-8 mark vs. Blazers, Rockets, Thunder, Clips and Pacers. The win was over LA without Chris Paul.	5
5		BLAKE GRIFFIN, F, L.A. CLIPPERS: Clips are 8-2 this month and have a strong chance to go 6-1 on their trip as the Grammys occupy Staples Center. Averaging 25.2 points and 8.7 boards in January and shooting 75 percent from the line. Don’t quite get why El Lay’s best team hasn’t signed Andrew Bynum; don’t see how they’re going into playoff wars with Ryan Hollins as their backup big if DeAndre Jordan (.403 FTs) gets into foul trouble or hacked onto the bench.	6
6		LaMARCUS ALDRIDGE, F, PORTLAND: I think I said everything that needed to be said about Aldridge in the intro, but I have space to fill here, so I’ll feed something to the stat lovers who only look at the broad picture. He has 26 double-doubles in 42 games. So he’s a nice player to have on your fantasy team. He produces nice numbers every night. But his go-to move is a turnaround jumper, and big men with his type of averages should be better than .476 from the field.	4
7		JAMES HARDEN, G, HOUSTON: Did you know he is teammates with Robert Covington? Neither did I. And so we hereby meet our quota of one completely insignificant fact placed at some random point in these rankings. Went for 37. 38 and 37 in three games between Dec. 31 and Jan. 8, and hasn’t hit 30 since. Still, Rockets are 5-2 in that span, and if they played the Clippers in a 4-5 matchup, I’d be betting on the bearded one (If I was a better bettor).	8
8		STEPHEN CURRY, G, GOLDEN STATE: Going 2-for-9 and 3-for-11 on 3-pointers in his last two games isn’t going to bump him above the bearded one. But let’s see what happens as he settles back into the friendly confines of Oakland, where the ‘Dubs play 10 of their next 13. Still plenty of time to make up the three games behind the archrival Clippers, in the Pacific Division. Everyone pray to the basketball gods that we get a 4-5 matchup between those teams.	6
9		DeMAR DeROZAN, G, TORONTO RAPTORS: En fuego since Rudy Gay took his hot-and-cold act to Sacramento, and pairs with Kyle Lowry for the NBA’s most underrated backcourt. He is 12th in scoring and looks like he’ll be a first-time All-Star. If his team continues to improve it could actually push Miami to seven games in a second-round series. Wait, did I just write that? Guess that’s what happens when you judge the Heat in January.	–
10		DAMIAN LILLARD, G, PORTLAND: My man crush is officially over. Would have liked to see him try to take over down the stretch vs. OKC instead of repeatedly dumping to LMA for empty possessions. When you are a killer clutch player, Damian, you find a way to take the game’s biggest shots, OK? Do that over the next week and maybe I’ll put you a little higher. At least you can take solace in having knocked D-Wade out of these rankings.	7