Stephen Curry, James Harden Showcase Tight MVP Race

Wednesday night’s showdown between two of the Western Conference’s finest — the Golden State Warriors against the Houston Rockets — escalated into a Josh Smith ejection and a couple of technical fouls on both ends of the floor.

“They ain’t even that good,” claimed Rockets’ star James Harden rather ironically, as the Warriors possess the best record in the league and are doing so at a historical rate. Perhaps the irony of ironies, for Harden murmured those words in a pre-game huddle prior to Saturday night’s match-up against Golden State, where the Warriors posted 131 points in their house, and went on to win by a whopping 25 points.

Four days later, on a Wednesday night in the Oracle Arena, the Warriors would cap off their season series with the Rockets with an exclamation point, defeating them by 13 points. The final score is not indicative to how badly the Rockets were outplayed on both ends, which led to an early blowout, followed by garbage minutes that dominated a considerable portion of the second half.

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It’s certainly fair to theorize that Harden’s gibberish sparked a strong sense of tension between the two teams, while it’s also fair to say that the Warriors’ season sweep against them, all by double-digit margins, patently resulted into utter frustration in the Rockets’ locker room.

Nevertheless, the match-ups between the two were always exceedingly intriguing, largely because of the two front-runners for the league MVP in Stephen Curry and James Harden going head-to-head.

In a nutshell, it’s easier to confidently say Curry deserves the trophy, and deservedly so. He’s having his best season as a pro and is the leader of a Warriors team that has been nothing short of unstoppable, hanging on to a 34-6 record approaching the halfway mark. Golden State is off to the best start since Michael Jordan‘s 90s Bulls, controlling a point differential of +11.7, exhibiting its dominance to the fullest extent.

Jan 17, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) dribbles the ball during the third quarter as Houston Rockets forward Josh Smith (5) defends at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

According to ESPN Hollinger NBA Player Statistics, Curry ranks fourth in the NBA in PER (Player Efficiency Rating) sitting on top of a 27.87 rating, followed by Harden who scored a 27.56. The PER is a sophisticated rating of a player’s per-minute productivity.

Yes, Harden leads the league in scoring at 27.2, much of that due to his expertise to get himself to the foul line and convert at a lethal rate, where Curry is seventh at 23.2. But, Curry accumulates more assists and steals, and most impressively, leads the entire league in RPM (Real Plus Minus).

RPM estimates how many points each player adds or subtracts, on average, to his team’s net scoring margin for each 100 possessions played. It is very similar to the standard +/- statistic, though it focuses in on the individual and measures his presence on the floor in particular. Curry ranks at a phenomenal 8.74, which, to put into perspective, is not far off from LeBron James‘ dominant 9.08 that led the league at the end of last season. James is regarded as the best overall player in the game, so for Curry to be hovering over the possibility of eclipsing The King’s RPM, one that ranked the highest since the invention of the statistic, vehemently manifests Curry’s outstanding court performance.

Harden’s RPM is impressive as well, for he ranks third in the league at 6.73.

The most promising analytic extracted from each of their exceptional resumes thus far is their improvement on the defensive end of the floor. Curry’s DRPM (Defensive Real Plus Minus) currently ranks at 2.08, a distinct improvement from last season’s -0.38. Harden, on the other hand, has improved tremendously, elevating his DRPM from a -2.84 last season to a 0.33, and nearly averages a block per game (0.9).

Their efforts on the defensive end of the floor has reinvented their identity into legitimate two-way players.

Moreover, the one valid argument in favor of Harden is that Curry is on the much superior team, helping maintain his statistics at an extremely effective and efficient rate. The Warriors lead the league in FG%, shooting the ball at an extraordinarily efficient 48% per game; whereas the Rockets rank 23rd, averaging 43%. Ploenty of this has to do with the way Steve Kerr‘s offense operates, specifically the ball movement that constantly results into taking advised outside shots. Nonetheless, the Warriors merely have better players.

Golden State has a stunning six players in the top 80 in RPM compared to Houston’s two.

Additionally, Harden was forced to operate without his All-Star center Dwight Howard for 12 games. Since Howard’s return, he has not resembled his own-self, for the ailing star aditted that he’s yet to fully recover, and he’s evidently having his worst season of his career since his rookie year, averaging 16.7 PPG and 11.2 RPG with just over a block. Rockets’ starting point guard Patrick Beverly, who brings incessant energy and firepower with unparalleled aggressiveness and a motor that never seems to run out of fuel, missed twelve games earlier due to injury. And, to cap it all off, their starting power forward Terrence Jones played solely the first four games before suffering an injury that has kept him sidelined till this day.

December 10, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) dribbles the basketball against Golden State Warriors guard Andre Iguodala (9) during the first quarter at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Yet, Harden’s been able to propel the Rockets to a 29-14 record in the roaring Western Conference due to his ability to facilitate, get himself to the free throw line at a special rate, and connect on a number of clutch shots.

Overall, Curry’s body of work statistically is slightly superior to Harden’s, and he is the best player on the best team in the league that is producing at an inscrutable rate. However, the valid argument for Harden is permissible; he’s been able to put the Rockets 15 games over in the win column with, truly, a very average supporting cast.

Next: Golden State Warriors Finish Off First Half of Season Against Sacramento Kings

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