Remember the days when a monthly average of 40 was good enough?
Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard was not named Kia NBA Player of the Month, despite averaging 38.5 points per game in ten appearances in February and hitting a history top dozen with 71 points against the Houston Rockets on March 26. of month. Lillard also averaged 7.0 assists and 5.7 rebounds in 37.4 minutes per game during that span, shooting 50% from the field and 41% from three-point arc. Oh, and 96.3% from the foul line. To 10.9 attempts per game.
But nööööööööööööööööööööö
Lillard was edged out of honor by Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who admittedly had a triple-double with 22.6 points, 14.2 rebounds and 10.2 assists for the month and 64.2% from the field and 50.0% shot from the bow, but Jokic is already the two-time and reigning NBA MVP. Also, Wilt Chamberlain, Russell Westbrook and Jason Kidd all scoff at the measly triple-double clip in the shortest month of the year. Some of these guys did it for an entire season or in the playoffs, yo. But 38.5 points? Wilt tends to agree. light up.
While Jokic won the Western Conference Player of the Month award, the New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson won the Eastern Conference version, citing talking head Stephen A. Smith for another reason that the Blazers are selling Lillard to his favorite team , would benefit everyone as Dame Brunson could certainly have batted if he had played in that conference. This prompted analyst Shaquille O’Neal to suggest that the NBA simply set up a “saints” conference around each and every star player, giving everyone a chance to win their own conference each month, to which media mogul Charles Barkley replied: ” Yeah, you’re the only one with a head big enough to deserve your own conference.” At that point, Shaq said, “Come on. That is not true. That is not true.”
All of the above may not actually have happened, but checkers shouldn’t be passed over in his 71-point month either, y’all.
Via NBA communicationsLillard was among five players to get an honorable mention for the month, so at least that’s it.
Other nominees… West: Anthony Davis (LAL), De’Aaron Fox (SAC), Damian Lillard (POR), Lauri Markkanen (UTA) and Klay Thompson (GSW) East: Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL), Joel Embiid (PHI ), Donovan Mitchell (CLE), Julius Randle (NYK), Pascal Siakam (TOR) and Trae Young (ATL)
I think Lillard just needs to hit 45 in March with a 90 point performance. Unless, of course, Jokic sneezes sideways, in which case…pffffftt.
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