Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo sat out their final games meaning the Philadelphia 76ers center has won the closest-ever superstar battle for the NBA scoring title.
The field of three contenders became two though as LeBron's season has officially ended with the Los Angeles Lakers shutting him down.
Embiid (30.57) was the only scoring title contender in action on Saturday and extended his lead over Giannis (29.88) with a 41-point performance as the Philadelphia 76ers kept themselves in contention for the third seed in the East with a 133-120 win over the Indiana Pacers.
Giannis and Embiid sat out the final games on Sunday with the Bucks at Cleveland and the Sixers finishing the regular season with a home game against Detroit.
LeBron finishes the season with a 30.27 scoring average over his 56 games played, which falls two games shy of meeting the minimum games played requirement of 58 (70 per cent of the team's total games).
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The race was one for the ages and continued to fluctuate between the trio and, remember, we are not just talking about any three men. We are talking about:
- Joel Embiid - He is arguably the story of the league this season and could well end up with his first MVP crown, also has a chance of winning the scoring crown. After a protracted start to his career, the Philadelphia 76ers center has now revved up to the peak of his powers and is a dominant force at both ends of the floor every night. From a scoring perspective, as well as having his way with anyone inside, he can hit all sorts of high-technique jump shots from various distances and areas of the floor. Defenses settle for him shooting threes and he hits them at a 36 per cent clip on 3.7 attempts per night - that says it all really.
- Giannis Antetokounmpo – Giannis is a force of nature and can still storm to the basket with ease against any given defense at any given point on any given night. If he doesn't slam down a dunk (or, although irrelevant to this particular discussion, kick out a perfect pass to an open team-mate) then he will be getting to the line to shoot free throws the vast majority of the time. Not just that but the three-point shot has been looking better recently. He has yet to win the scoring title and if he did so, it would just add yet more gleam to his first ballot Hall of Fame resume.
- LeBron James - One of the greatest basketball players of all-time and a four-time champion and four-time league and Finals MVP. Primarily a playmaker, he has only won the scoring title once, some 14 years ago, and it looks like his chances may be over with the Los Angeles Lakers having nothing left to play for. He missed Thursday night's live clash on Sky Sports and looks to be done for the season.
At one stage, the race between Embiid, LeBron and Giannis was separated by just 0.03 ppg. It would not only have been the closest three-player race ever, but the closest any race has ever been decided, topping the 0.07 from George Gervin and David Thompson back in 1977-78.
Durant could also have been in contention...
The only downside to all of this is that it could have been a four-man race.
Brooklyn's Durant is actually second in the league in scoring on 30.14 ppg but cannot win the scoring title since he will also not meet the NBA's minimum - 58 games in an 82-game season - to qualify.
A decade ago, Kevin Durant, then with Oklahoma City, held off the Lakers' Kobe Bryant by one-tenth of a point, 28.0 to 27.9 for the second-closest head-to-head race ever.
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