Defending Scoring Champion Kobe Bryant will try to catch Carmelo Anthony for the lead in the scoring race. Currently, Kobe is in 2nd place and is averaging 29.0 points per game. He already missed 4 games this season, 3 by injuries and 1 by suspension. Kobe still has 20 more games to catch-up. He must score a bunch of points and at the same time lead the Lakers in the playoffs. Winning is more important than personal accolades.

Kobe needs to average 36.09 ppg for the last 22 games to have an average of 31.0 for the full season. This is possible but I don't think Kobe will do it since he is now a team player. He may need to average 34.3 over the last 22 games to have an average of 30.5. To grab the scoring lead, Kobe hopes that Melo's ppg (30.4 as of now) will go down and his (Kobe's) go up over the last games they will play. It might happen, albeit hardly, since Melo is trying to be one of the youngest if not the youngest scoring champion in the history of the NBA. Seeing that Melo is looking for more shots even though he is playing with AI made me to believe (in my opinion) that he wants that scoring title.

Wade, 3rd in the league in scoring with 28.8 had chance, but got injured. Arenas is a scoring machine but he is inconsistent. I mean, sometimes he will score 40 or 50 but on the next game he will just score in single digits. Arenas is averaging 28.9 ppg. The guy is a ball hog, a shoot-first, pass-second point guard. Like Kobe, he needs to average more than 36 points in his team's remaining games to average 31. If Melo will average 32 ppg the rest of the way, he will average 31 ppg for the season. I don't think he can do that especially when he is playing with AI. Melo's ppg went down when AI came to the Nuggets.

Two more players that are on a tear right now are Michael Redd and LeBron James. Redd just scored 52 points in his last game and LBJ is scorching the nets after the break. Redd will not win the scoring title, I know you know that. LBJ needs to average over 40 to end the season with 31.0 ppg. It will not happen. He will not get the scoring title.

This season is not the same and as intense like last year when we saw 3 players average over 30 ppg, however, this still can be exciting since Kobe and Gil are not far behind the current leader Melo.  Who knows, maybe one game Kobe get back to his old self, be a ball hog, and average 40 points the rest of the way and with one game scoring 82 points, who knows?