With a bushy beard covering his face, round jet-black sunglasses and a pair of jeans that were seemingly more rips than pants, Tristan Thompson looked like a Snapchat filter as he yelled across a crowded Cavs locker room to LeBron James on Monday night.

"Glad to have you back," Thompson said, after James returned from strep throat to put up 24 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in a 102-95 win for Cleveland over the Milwaukee Bucks. "Feel better."

Everyone in Cleveland is feeling better after the Cavs closed out February with a 9-2 record -- even after a close loss in Boston on Wednesday -- thanks in large part to James' stellar play.

James, a 14-year veteran, put up numbers last month that rivaled the best stretches of his career: 25.9 points per game on 63.7 percent shooting and a sizzling 56.8 percent mark on 3-pointers to go along with 10.6 assists and 7.2 rebounds.

The result? James' Cavs have the top record in the East, his gravitational pull has helped attract Deron Williams, Derrick Williams and Andrew Bogut to Cleveland, and his teammates are again campaigning for James as the league's MVP -- an honor he hasn't been given since the 2012-13 season with the Miami Heat.

"I'm biased, I'm a teammate, but I think his body of work speaks for itself," longtime teammate James Jones told ESPN. "We're a very good team with him. In his absence, because he's such an integral part of everything we do, it shows you just how much he means to us."

Team plus-minus per game among MVP candidates PLAYER On-court Off-court LeBron James +7.2 -1.5 Kevin Durant +11.3 +1.7 James Harden +6.1 +0.9 Russell Westbrook +3.0 -2.7 Kawhi Leonard +6.8 +2.4 Isaiah Thomas +2.3 +0.1

No team drops off quite as dramatically without its star on the floor as Cleveland does without James. In terms of wins and losses, the Cavs are 41-14 when James plays and 0-4 when he sits. Meanwhile, the Cavs have outscored opponents by 7.2 points per game in the minutes James has been on the floor and have been outscored by 1.5 points per game when he goes to the bench.

But his teammates will tell you that stats aren't the whole story when measuring what James brings to this Cavaliers squad.

"He's obviously the best player in the game, but his leadership and his intensity he brings every night and just his passion for the game is contagious," Deron Williams said when asked how James influenced his decision to come to Cleveland.

Williams said he was also convinced by a former Utah Jazz teammate, Kyle Korver, who after just a few weeks in a Cavs uniform has already felt at home as part of the culture James created.

"I think everyone talks about championships," Korver said. "Everyone wants to win a championship. But not many people are [about team].

"They want to win a championship doing it their way, you know what I mean? Like, 'I want to win a championship, but I want to get mine along the way.' And I think this team really understands sacrificing yourself and preparing every day and what you have to do to your mind, body and spirit to be sharp through June. I've been around. I've been on some really good teams, but this team really gets it.

"Obviously, they've been there. LeBron's played in how many Finals in a row? And there's just a different level of maturity, I would say. And just how you prepare yourself and how you approach your day and how you approach the locker room, and it's unique."

Thompson, who spent his first three years in Cleveland while James was still playing for the Heat, told ESPN that James' presence extends beyond the locker room.

"Before he came to the team, we would never do team dinners," Thompson said. "We would never do team functions at someone's house. Not until he came here. He set that up and said, 'Let's do dinner. Any city we go to, let's do dinner.' Guys don't do that. I think that brings teams together. You can ask a lot of guys around the league, they don't do that. Maybe it's two guys that go to dinner together, but it's not 7-8 guys. That's very rare."

After righting the ship in February, LeBron James and the Cavs look ready to make the playoff push. David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images

Rarer still is the class that James would join by winning a fifth MVP award. Only Michael Jordan (five), Bill Russell (five) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six) hold as many. It was Russell who said the key to his success with the Celtics was getting his group to be kind and generous to one another, a mantra James has also instilled.

And when he strays from that sentiment, as he did in late January when he called out the team's commitment to winning and deemed Cleveland's roster "top-heavy as s---," it is done with a purpose. A team source told ESPN it was a master motivational tool, as James believes the practice of becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable is a team's best chance for growth.

"He brings so much to our team," Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. "The way he can defend, rebound the basketball, get guys involved, get guys easy shots, can score the basketball, knowing when to pick and choose his spots, when to be aggressive offensively but also getting guys involved. He's just a winner. Anybody that goes to the Finals six straight times is a winner. He just makes everyone better, myself included."

Within the Cavs' locker room, you can hear holes being poked in some of the other MVP candidates' campaigns. Whispers of how Russell Westbrook might have 23 more triple-doubles than James this season, but James' Cavs have six more wins than the Thunder. How James Harden's numbers, while fantastic, are largely tied to new coach Mike D'Antoni's system, which already netted Steve Nash two MVPs with the Phoenix Suns that some close to James would argue haven't aged so well in the eyes of basketball history. How Kevin Durant is not getting nearly the same scrutiny for joining the Warriors as James did for joining the Heat in 2010.

"He's just totally different than anybody else because he's the best player, but he makes everyone better," Jones told ESPN. "He just makes the game easier for everyone -- role players, stars, the like. I think people tend to get accustomed to just how good he is, and they take him for granted every year just because he's been so good for so long and have seen him do so many things.

"Sometimes they get bored with what they know is coming, even if that's still the best option out there."

James, who has gone on record in the past to acknowledge that voter fatigue perhaps explains in part why he doesn't have more than four MVPs already, was reticent to go too far into his own credentials this season.

"I'm always shy when you ask me about myself," James said. "Just try to be an MVP for this team every night that I go out on the floor. And I don't know. Look at my winning percentage. Look at my winning percentage when I'm on the floor and when I'm not on the floor. That's what it's all about. That's what this league is all about. Just win. And also produce. So I don't know. So many great guys, so many MVP candidates this year, guys having great seasons. So we'll see."

On Monday, James thoroughly outplayed Giannis Antetokounmpo, the 22-year-old Bucks wunderkind, who was limited to nine points on 4-for-13 shooting. As James walked out of Quicken Loans Arena, he was holding two vanilla-frosted glazed cinnamon buns in one hand and a pack of nuts and dried fruit in the other.

"Usually, I just have these after a game," James told ESPN, holding up the healthier snack. "But I got to get my weight up. I lost 5 pounds from being sick. There are more games to play."

And another MVP award to chase.