NBA
Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo awarded as best players of NBA’s Week 15
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All posts by Antonio KozlowUpdated31 Jan 2023
Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo have been awarded with the NBA Players of the Week for their performances from Monday, January 23rd to Sunday the 29th.
Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo have been named the NBA Western and Eastern Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for Week 15 of the 2022-23 season (Jan. 23-29). pic.twitter.com/9BieTFiPTr
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 30, 2023
Trail Blazers’s star shined over Week 15 as he averaged 42.3 points and 7.7 assists on 63.2% shooting precision, over a 2-1 week for Portland. The 32-year-old guard scored 60 points in a single game after 21 out of 29 of his shots went inside the rim, recorded as his season’s highest.
With this latest stat, he tied Luka Dončić’s 60-point game against the Knicks, and is only behind Donovan Mitchell’s crazy 71-point game on January 2nd.
During the past week, the Portland guard has been climbing up several all-time NBA lists. First, he overcame Vince Carter and Jason Terry to become the sixth player to achieve most career three-pointers on the NBA’s all-time list. Then, he jumped passed former Trail Blazers forward Zach Randolph to squeeze into the 69th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring track.
As we mentioned before, the guard’s most spectacular performance of the week was during his season-high 60 point score in Portland’s win over Utah on Wednesday. He also handed out 8 assists, won 7 rebounds and had three steals, clearly leading his team to victory.
Watch the highlights of Lillard’s stellar display against the Jazz:
With his fourth 60+ point game in his career, he tied for third all-time with Michael Jordan and James Harden. He trails Kobe Bryant (who has 6) and Wilt Chamberlain (an unbeatable 32) in 60-point matches.
Lillard is the player who’s most been awarded Player of the Week in Portland Trail Blazers history, with a total of 15 times over his entire career. Just this campaign, it’s been the guard’s second time he has been honored, with the first one awarded after the first week of the season on October 24th.
This championship, Lillard is now averaging 30.1 points, 7.3 assists and 4.0 rebounds over a total of 37 games so far. The Blazers (23-26) went 2-1 with wins against the San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz and a loss against the Toronto Raptors, and are currently 12th in the Western Conference standings.
As for Giannis, he seems to be back to his best version after he recovered from his knee injury two and a half weeks ago in Atlanta. The Bucks foward led his team to an undefeated week with a 50-point performance against the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday, as his main highlight.
You can watch how “The Greek Freak” managed to score 50 points in only 30 minutes of play in the video below:
The two-time league’s MVP averaged 38.3 points, 12.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists after four victories against the Pistons, Nuggets, Pacers and Pelicans, as this is the third time he’s received this honor in the 2022–23 campaign.
Antetokounmpo is now beating players like Kyle Kuzma, Julius Randle and Bam Adebayo for his shooting line precision this league, accomplishing a remarkable shooting line: .647/.467/.580.
The Bucks star is averaging 31.7 points, 12.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists over 39 games this season, as Milwaukee are currently 3rd in the Eastern Conference’s table, with a 33-17 record.
