James Harden and Nikola Vucevic named NBA Players of the Week
Tuesday 19 November 2019 06:40, UK
Houston Rockets guard James Harden has been named Western Conference Player of the Week with Orlando Magic center Nikola Vucevic scooping the honours in the East.
Harden is the recipient of the Player of the Week award for the second straight week and the 24th time in his career.
The Rockets went 4-0 in Week 4 (November 11-17) despite being without Eric Gordon and Danuel House Jr for the final three games, Clint Capela for the final two, and Russell Westbrook for the last game.
Harden averaged 44.8 points, 6.8 assists, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.25 steals in the four games. He averaged 16.0 fourth-quarter points on 58.6 per cent shooting for the week.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Harden became the fourth player in NBA history to have averaged at least 43.0 points per game over a seven-game span in which his team went undefeated, joining Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, and Michael Jordan.
Harden is also averaging 6.6 three-pointers made on 41.4 per cent shooting during the Rockets current seven-game winning streak. He has hit 63 three-pointers overall this season, marking the second-highest total through the first 13 games in NBA history.
Harden has scored a total of 513 points in 480 minutes of play this season. That is the highest total through the first 13 games of a season since Wilt Chamberlain had 696 in 1962-63.
The seven-time All-Star is averaging 39.5 points this season, which is 9.4 more than the second-ranked player among qualifiers.
Harden is averaging 19.7 first-half points and 19.8 second-half points. His first-half average would rank him tied for 26th in the NBA overall this season while his second-half average would rank him tied for 24th.
November basketball seems to bring out the best in Magic center Vucevic. On the heels of Sunday's dynamic 30-point, 17-rebound, six-assist performance in Orlando's victory over the Washington Wizards, Vucevic was named the Eastern Conference's Player of the Week on Monday.
For Vucevic, the longest-tenured player on the Magic, it is his third time winning the award and the second year in a row that he has captured the honour in mid-November.
In three games this past week, Vucevic averaged 21.7 points, 14.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.33 blocks per game while shooting 54.2 per cent (26-of-48) overall and 66.7 per cent (6-9) from three-point range.
The 7-footer sparked Orlando to a 3-0 record during Week 4 with victories over Philadelphia, San Antonio and Washington. Vucevic tallied double-doubles in all three games.
Only five players in the 31-year history of the Magic have notched games with at least 30 points, 15 rebounds and five assists - Shaquille O'Neal (three times), Tobias Harris (once), Dwight Howard (once) and Tracy McGrady (once) are the others - and Vucevic leads the way with four such performances.
A 2019 NBA All-Star, Vucevic has started all 13 games this season and leads the Magic in scoring (18.2 PPG) and rebounding (12.1 RPG). Also, he is averaging 3.4 assist and 1.08 blocks a night in 32.3 minutes per game.
