NBA MVP odds: Can anyone catch heavy favorite Nikola Jokic?

With roughly 10 games left in the NBA's regular season, Nikola Jokic is the runaway favorite to be named MVP. And time is running out to catch him.

The Nuggets center is -380 to win the award entering Wednesday's games, slightly ahead of 76ers center Joel Embiid (+350), and a step above Warriors guard Stephen Curry (+1200). Only Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, Luka Doncic (+3600), and James Harden (+4900) are shorter than 50-1.

The precipitous fall of former MVP favorite LeBron James (+6500) shows how tough it might be to catch Jokic. The Lakers star was the clear favorite in February, and he was +260 behind a favored Embiid as recently as mid-March before missing a month with an injury. That's been enough to wipe him from consideration entirely, despite an otherwise gaudy statistical campaign.

So, with just over two weeks left in the regular season, is there a realistic challenger who can knock Jokic off the top spot? It's tough to envision anyone closing the gap, and even an injury to the Nuggets big man may not derail his MVP candidacy.

Jokic leads the league in win shares (13.3) and box plus-minus, totaling nearly 40% more than the second-highest producer in either stat. He's the only player who ranks in the top 10 in points (26.2), rebounds (11), and assists (8.7) per game, and Jokic is the fulcrum of the fourth-place Nuggets in a loaded Western Conference.

Embiid leads the league in PER (31.2). He's one spot ahead of Jokic (31.0), while Curry's 31.2 points per game rank him ahead of both. Yet neither has led their team to a better record than Jokic's squad, and both have played fewer games than the Denver star.

Even if Embiid's 76ers finish with more wins in a few weeks, that won't be enough to offset the massive gulf in on-court production between him and Jokic, who has been healthy all year while carrying an even heavier burden after running mate Jamal Murray went down. And although Curry's recent hot streak looks great in the box score, it's difficult to imagine the most valuable player coming from a middling team without him posting eye-popping numbers.

Such numbers instead belong to Jokic, who's the quintessential MVP candidate right now and the rightful favorite, even at such a short price. We've been high on him since early in the campaign when his price didn't match the three-time All-Star's play. That's no longer the case, as the market has caught up to his otherworldly output.

It's hard to lay this sort of number on something that theoretically could change, but you're better off either playing Jokic at this price or sitting out. This is his award to lose.

Updated NBA MVP odds (as of April 28)

C Jackson Cowart is a betting writer for theScore. He's an award-winning journalist with stops at The Charlotte Observer, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Times Herald-Record, and BetChicago. He's also a proud graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, and his love of sweet tea is rivaled only by that of a juicy prop bet. Find him on Twitter @CJacksonCowart.