NBA MVP Power Rankings: Jayson Tatum rises after recent success, who drops?

5. Jayson Tatum

Last week's rank: 6

Jayson Tatum has been on an absolute roll since the New Year began. He's led his Celtics to a 4-3 record and has dominated while doing it, scoring almost 30 points per game in the six contests he's played, which is why he has risen in this week's rankings.

On Thursday, The Boston Celtics took on the Milwaukee Bucks in a battle between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. Many fans and media figures dubbed this matchup the Eastern Conference Finals preview. Unfortunately, this game would not live up to expectations, and the Bucks would dominate the Celtics.

It was an overall frustrating game for the Celtics, and they would end up benching their starters after the first half. The game got so bad that TNT cut away to the Mavericks-Knicks game for a brief moment.

Despite getting dominated by the second-best team in the East, the Celtics would bounce back in dominant fashion over the Houston Rockets. Tatum would have an amazing game against the Rockets but would get tossed out of the game after a blatant missed call by the referee.

Before getting ejected and scoring only seven points against the Bucks, Tatum was rolling over teams. He scored 38 points in a dominate win over the Indiana Pacers and followed that up with a 45-point game over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Tatum still has work to do if he expects to rise on this list, but he has all the intangibles to make for a great MVP run.