Almost three weeks ago, the NBA announced the results of its most valuable player voting. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade ran 1-2-3.
These also are the three most common answers to the question, “Who do you pick first if you’re trying to win a championship?” — although Orlando center Dwight Howard has lately arrived in that conversation too.
Carmelo Anthony did not get a single vote in this year’s MVP balloting. Not even for fifth place, which is where the ballot stops.
Chauncey Billups got a few — six for fourth place and 15 for fifth — because his arrival so clearly marked the turning point between the focused Nuggets of this season and the nitwit Nuggets of the past.
But if the question is who’s the best player in the postseason so far, Anthony belongs in the discussion every bit as much as LeBron, Kobe or D-Wade. He has been that good.
In fact, in the postseason so far, Melo and Kobe have exactly the same scoring average — 28.6 points per game — and Melo has been more efficient, shooting .500 to Kobe’s .462. Anthony also has been better from long range (.429 to .375) and on the boards (6.4 to 5.1). Bryant has more assists, barely (4.4 to 4.2).
But the story of Anthony’s postseason rise to the occasion is not just about numbers. It is also about drive and leadership. Mostly, it is about winning.
And isn’t that all Melo has heard for the last five years — how winning in the postseason is all that matters? How none of those shiny regular-season numbers of his meant diddly?
There he is, demanding the defensive assignment on Dirk Nowitzki down the stretch of games in the second round, battling, banging, competing with the former MVP at both ends, leading his team where no Nuggets team has gone for a generation.
And here he is, demanding the defensive assignment on Kobe down the stretch, battling, banging, competing with the former MVP at both ends, leading his team home with a split in Los Angeles and a chance to do something his franchise has never done.
Plenty of NBA observers have wondered whether Anthony would ever get to this point. He could have been just a big-time scorer. Nothing wrong with that. Average 20-plus long enough and you’re going to the Hall of Fame, whether your team does anything or not. For a while, he seemed happy enough to plateau there while James and Wade, his 2003 draft classmates, rushed past on their way to greater glory.
But it’s easy to forget how young he was when he arrived after that championship season — his lone college season — at Syracuse. He turns 25 next week. He’s learned to lead by example, like Billups. He’s learned to take the toughest defensive assignment down the stretch, like Kenyon Martin.
Asked if the Nuggets’ power forward would be checking the Lakers’ shooting guard in this series, as he did a year ago when the Lakers swept the Nuggets, Anthony grinned. No, he said, that won’t be necessary this time around.
Taking on the bigger Nowitzki or the smaller Bryant, he is getting better as he goes — 24 points per game in the first round against New Orleans, 30 in the second round against Dallas, 36.5 so far in the conference finals against the Lakers.
But it’s the ferocity, the determination, the refusal to lose he has not displayed before that is the biggest difference. His battles with Bryant have been the pictures of this series so far.
Whatever you think of the rest of the Lakers’ cast, they were favored to go to the Finals because they had the best player this side of LeBron, the player who would rise to the occasion when it mattered most.
And Kobe still might. But through two games in Los Angeles, he is not the best player in the series. Anthony has been. And if Bryant and Anthony neutralize one another, the Lakers become vulnerable, as we have seen.
Twelve postseason games are not enough to make the basketball world redefine its royal hierarchy. Anthony will have to keep proving he belongs up there. But this is already the year he proved that if he cares enough, he can be as good as anybody.
“He is growing up right in front of us,” Nuggets coach George Karl said.
Quite a show too.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297 or dkrieger@denverpost.com
