Brad Stevens Endorses LeBron James For MVP; Steph Curry Makes Case (Photos)

LeBron James This race for this season’s NBA Most Valuable Player Award seems to have narrowed itself down to five players.

After Tuesday night’s matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Boston Celtics will have played against two of them in a three-day span.

First, it was Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, who dropped 37 points on the Celtics in a come-from-behind win Sunday night.

Following Curry was LeBron James, a four-time MVP recipient whose return from injury has sparked the Cleveland Cavaliers to an 18-5 record over their last 23 games. Boston visited Cleveland on Tuesday for a matchup with James and the Cavs, who actually entered the contest on a two-game losing streak.

“(James) looks like the MVP to me,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Tuesday morning, via MassLive.com. “I know we’ve got all this argument going on, but man, he’s hard to stop.

“… I don’t know that there is a viable option in the whole league defending LeBron.”

James and Curry both enter the season’s home stretch with strong MVP cases. But unlike last season, where Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant was a nearly unanimous choice for the honor, there remains no clear-cut favorite.

Click the link below to see what each of the four MVP front-runners brings to the table.