NBA

The 4 Best NBA Performances From Last Week: LeBron James Dominates Denver

Could anyone top LeBron James and his triple-double outing Monday night?

If you still haven't checked out numberFire Live, I'm not sure I can help you anymore. 

For the past two weeks I've been telling you how, with Live, you can follow games in a very unique way, with live win probabilities at your disposal. You also have the ability to investigate each play, as well as each player's impact on the game.

The numberFire Live " Leaders" tab is a list comprised of each night's top NBA performers and performances on a scale of 1 to 100, according to production and efficiency.

Each of the four performers below warranted a rating of 100 -- a perfect score -- for their respective performances. They are listed in order of their nERD (a measure of a player's total contribution, based on efficiency) for the given games.

4. Russell Westbrook vs. San Antonio

In what turned out to be a blowout win for the Thunder Saturday night (albeit against a San Antonio team absent four starters), Russell Westbrook posted an efficient and dominant game. And if you're thinking that's because he didn't play his usual compliment of minutes, you're wrong. Coach Donovan road Westbrook to the tune of 29 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds as his point guard shot 10 of 18 from the field and 9 of 9 from the free throw line all while using 30.4% of his team's available plays in 34 minutes of court time.

Westbrook was a beast. 

3. Nicolas Batum vs. Milwaukee

On the same night as Westbrook's ultra-effective showing, Nicolas Batum produced an even more efficient line of his own. Despite a Usage 5.1% less than that of the Thunder point guard, in the same amount of minutes, Batum tallied 25 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds. His 25 points came on just 15 shots and four free throw chances by connecting on 5 of 9 attempts from beyond the arc. The resulting True Shooting Percentage of 74.6% trumps Westbrook's by 8%, making for an Offensive Rating of 161.7 points per 100 possessions.

2. LeBron James vs. Denver

While everyone and their brother has been off talking about what LeBron has been saying, not many have been paying attention to how he's been playing -- which has been awesome as of late. His game Monday night was a mere microcosm of that. In a 124-91 win over the Nuggets, James did it all for Cleveland, scoring 33 points, handing out 11 assists and snatching 11 boards. He exceeded each of his season shooting averages in going 12 of 19 from the floor, 1 of 2 from three and 8 for 11 from the charity stripe on his way to a point per minute. His Usage Rate of 36.5% amplifies LeBron's complete value in a contribution such as this. 

Want a glimpse of what he did at Denver? Take a look.

1. LaMarcus Aldridge vs. Memphis

The King had, without a doubt, one of his better performances of the season last week. But, so did LaMarcus Aldridge. In fact, Aldridge was the only one of these four players to earn a nERD of 60 or more with his sparkling performance in Friday's matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies. In the six-point victory, he poured in 32 points and 12 rebounds while also accounting for 3 blocks and a couple of steals on the defensive side of the floor. Aldridge has been proving that he's now possibly the most valuable player on this Spurs team, with the highest Usage Rate (30.7%) on the team and a Net Rating of 56.3 points per 100 in the outright best performance of the week.