NBA Best of the Week Awards
LeBron James win the Best of the Week Award (Photo credit: Keith Allison/Flickr.com)
It is time for HoopsHabit’s NBA Best of the Week Awards. Each week we’ll take a look back at the week that was to determine the best players, teams and performances in the NBA.
Gold Medal: LeBron James
LeBron James has been on a historic streak of late and seems to be putting the Most Valuable Player award out of reach for others. He went six straight games where he scored at least 30 points while shooting better than 60 percent. On Thursday, he just missed adding a seventh game to the record by one shot against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Over the week, he averaged 33.6 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.6 assists. He also added 2.6 steals per game while shooting 65 percent from the field.
Silver medal: Ty Lawson
Ty Lawson of the Denver Nuggets makes a surprise appearance on the list. The third-year player rattled off three straight games with 26 or more points. Over his four games this week, he averaged 23.7 points, 8.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game.
He has been especially good from beyond the arc. Over this week he has shot 62 percent from the 3-point line including a 5-for-5 performance Wednesday against Brooklyn.
Bronze medal: Blake Griffin
Blake Griffin wins a tight battle with Kevin Durant and his teammate Chris Paul for the third spot this week.
Griffin posted double-doubles in three of his four games and his Los Angeles Clippers won all four games. He averaged 19.7 points, 10.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists. He also chipped in with 1.0 block and 1.7 steals per game as well.
Player to Watch: Jose Calderon
Jose Calderon has made an improvement to the Detroit Pistons since they traded for him. This week, he averaged 20 points, 7.3 assists and 2.6 steals per game. The team went 2-1 for the week.
He has averaged only 11.6 points per game on the season. He has exceeded that in four of the six games he has played with the Pistons. His 3-point shooting has been very effective. He has shot 55 percent since joining the team and 63 percent over the past week.
Rookie of the Week: Damian Lillard
This award can also be named after Damian Lillard as he has won it so often. Truth be told, it was rather a down week for rookies. Every rookie who had a game where they played very well in this week seemed to also have games where they were very bad in. The All-Star break is coming at a good time for the youngsters to hopefully get some rest in order to make the final push of the season.
Even Lillard had a down game this week with a four-point performance against Orlando. Despite his shooting in that game he was still able to contribute a career-high 12 assists. Over the week he averaged 16.3 points and 6.3 assists to lead rookies in both categories.
Performance of the Week: Paul George
Paul George may be the biggest breakout player of the season. He added to his terrific season with his first career triple-double in a win over Charlotte on Wednesday. He tallied 23 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists.
It was a great bounce back game as in his previous game against the Brooklyn Nets; he had his worst game on the season.
Team of the Week: Miami Heat
The Miami Heat come into the All-Star break with a seven-game win streak. This week they were playing Western Conference teams in the Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder. Their average margin of victory was 11 points.
The Oklahoma City game was a rematch of last year’s NBA Finals. The Heat came into town and quickly jumped out to a 32-17 first quarter lead that the Thunder were not able to recover from.
As mentioned earlier, James is playing the best basketball of his career but he is not the only player doing well right now. Chris Bosh has stepped up his game lately. Over the week, he averaged 21.3 points, 11.6 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game.
Ray Allen and Dwayne Wade have also been playing well. Beyond the big four, only Mario Chalmers has reached double digits for the past week and that was only one time. Bosh, James, Wade and Allen had accounted for 76 percent of the teams scoring over the past week with a high of 85 percent in the game against the Thunder.
The Heat have the best record in the Eastern Conference.
Game of the Week: Boston Celtics vs. Denver Nuggets
The Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets battled in a triple-overtime thriller. The Celtics would end up pulling out a 118-114 win. Both teams entered the game with long winning streaks. The Celtics had a six-game win streak and the Nuggets had won nine straight.
The Nuggets were down eight to start the fourth quarter but fought back to take the lead with just under two minutes. They would eventually need a Ty Lawson basket with .8 seconds left to force the first overtime.
Paul Pierce would he hit a three with 5.2 seconds left in the second overtime to force the third. He would end up with his second triple-double in two weeks as he scored 27 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists.
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PJ Sapienza
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