So much for desperation in Los Angeles and Cleveland. After leading their teams to undefeated records, the Clippers’ Blake Griffin and Cavaliers’ LeBron James have been named NBA Conference Players of the Week for games played between November 24th and November 30th.
Griffin guided Los Angeles to a 4-0 week by regaining the form that made him Dime’s pick for basketball’s top power forward before the season began. The do-it-all big man showed off his full array of skills en route to averaging 23.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 5.0 assists on 51.3 percent shooting in Los Angeles’ four consecutive road wins.
The four-time All-Star made a concerted effort to get paint shots this week after relying more than ever on his supposedly improved jumper in the season’s early going. 58.9 percent of Griffin’s attempts in the last four games came from the colored area compared to 53.4 percent for 2014-2015 overall. Obviously, that shot-chart shift proved a boon for his individual game as well as his team’s. We’re seeing stuff like this more and now, too:
This is the second time in November that James has won the Eastern Conference award. After saying his team’s recent four-game slide was in part due to him not doing his job, The King rebounded in a big way last week. He averaged 25.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, 8.7 assists, and 2.3 steals per game while shooting 51 percent from the field.
It’s obvious that LeBron is taking a more active and engaged leadership role with his team, too. He’s constantly talking, always animated, and has even dialed-up his defensive intensity a bit in Cleveland’s past three games. The result is a trio of wins, plus a prevalence of awesome plays like this:
The Clippers are 11-5 after a mediocre start. The Cavaliers are 8-7 after one even worse. And Blake Griffin and LeBron James are the players spearheading their teams’ improvements. In other words, the regular season grind is finally beginning.
What do you think?
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