NBA MVP Watch 2018-19: 5 Best performers from 17th October

The first round of NBA games from the season is almost over, with only 4 teams yet to play a game within the first 2 days. LeBron James and the Lakers start their season with a tough one at the Moda Center against the Trail Blazers, but we saw enough on Day 2 of NBA action to find some performances worth mentioning here.

It is important to note that this MVP watch is an extremely short-sighted one, with rankings changing at the turn of every week. For context, Kyrie Irving may yet bounce back as a fringe MVP candidate, but he did his rankings no favours with a 2-of-14 shooting night against the Sixers even though the Cs won the game handily.

Without further ado, let's take a look at the 5 best performers yesterday:

#1 Anthony Davis

Stats: 32 points, 16 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks in 39 minutes of game time;

13-of-21 shooting from the field, 6-of-7 from the free throw line, +/- of +23

The Unibrow laid down the gauntlet for the crown of the world's best basketball player in a recent interview on ESPN show The Jump. He is one of the betting favourites to win the Kia 2018-19 NBA MVP, and he's started the season off in about as great a fashion as he could have.

Playing 39 minutes in total, Davis was unstoppable as a rim-runner, using his length and strength to great effect against Clint Capela. So bad was the fallout of the Davis-Capela matchup, in fact, that Davis grabbed 2 steals early on in the game on passes intended for the Swissman, while restricting him to only 4 made field goals on 9 attempts.

The Pelicans blowing the Rockets out at the Toyota Center was about as good a result as AD's MVP pitch could have gotten as a start.