West MVP of the First Trimester: James Harden, Houston

It has become commonplace on Mondays, when ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings go live, to see Western Conference teams occupy the first five, six or even seven spots.

The same thing would undoubtedly occur if we didn't award separate MVPs in each conference at Trimester time.

James Harden. Steph Curry. Marc Gasol. Anthony Davis. Maybe even Russell Westbrook.

I'm pretty sure all of them would rank ahead of the East's most worthy nominees if real-life MVP voting were being conducted this week … with DeMarcus Cousins likely to have joined all those Westerners at the front of the line if his season hadn't been derailed by that scary bout of viral meningitis.

The superstar wars are so deep out West that the likes of Damian Lillard, Chris Paul and a back-with-a-vengeance Westbrook ‎have struggled to generate much MVP buzz. Harden and Curry, especially, are hogging most of it.

I have to admit I was tempted, as we did with our Eastern Conference picks, to go with Davis as my First Trimester selection, knowing that The Brow's Pelicans aren't going to win enough over the course of 82 games to give the 21-year-old much hope of a shot at the actual trophy in a league that hasn't delivered an MVP from a team with fewer than 50 wins since Houston's Moses Malone in 1982. With that otherworldly PER of 32.57, Davis really can't get enough recognition, even if New Orleans can take a step up from its current 42-win pace.

‎Ultimately, though, I couldn't deny Harden. Curry is right there, too, in terms of capitalizing on the West MVP void unexpectedly created by Kevin Durant's foot and ankle woes, given what Golden State has achieved despite playing for long stretches without Andrew Bogut and David Lee. The Beard, though, has uncorked three 40-point games in December alone on top of the sterling 8-4 record that the Harden-led Rockets have managed with Dwight Howard out injured.

The numbers have to be gaudy to trump the driving force behind Golden State's recent 16-game win streak. And here they are: Harden is averaging career highs in rebounds (6.3) and assists (7.1) per game, along with a career-best PER reading (26.54), in support of the league's top scoring average to date (27.2 PPG).