The race for the NBA scoring title is one of the tightest in NBA history, featuring three of the game's biggest names battling for the top spot. Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid currently owns a fractional edge over Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and Milwaukee Bucks big man Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the margin is so small the leaderboard can change on any given night -- as it did Wednesday when Antetokounmpo led the trio with 36 points, moving ahead of James (19) for second, just behind Embiid, who had 35.
Through Wednesday night's games, Embiid (29.9), Antetokounmpo (29.8) and James (29.5) are all averaging just shy of 30 points per game, with a mere 0.4 points separating the trio. That would break the record for closest three-man scoring chase, which happened in 1985-86 when Dominique Wilkins, Adrian Dantley and Alex English finished the season separated by 0.5 points per game. And with all due respect to that trio of Hall of Famers, the top of the leaderboard this year features bigger stars fighting for more than just scoring titles.
If Embiid wins, he will be the first center to do so in more than two decades. If Antetokounmpo wins, he would join Michael Jordan as the only players to win MVP, Finals MVP, DPOY and a scoring title. And for both of them, a scoring title would bolster their case to be named this year's MVP over the other one (and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic -- and the ever-growing cast of stars with a reasonable MVP case this season).
Then there's James. The Lakers' dreadful record has excluded him from the MVP conversation, but he still could become the oldest scoring champion in NBA history -- and it's easy to make the case that James will accomplish that.