Tuesday 21 January 2020 06:52, UK
LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard has been named Western Conference Player of the Week with Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons earning the honour in the East.
Leonard was named the best player in the West for games played from January 13-20. It is his seventh career Player of the Week award and his first since January 2019.
Leonard, who is on a five-game streak of scoring 30-plus points, helped lead the Clippers to a 3-0 week averaging 38.0 points, 5.0 assists, and 4.7 rebounds, in addition to shooting splits of 58.6 per cent from the field and 52.4 per cent from three-point range.
Against the Cleveland Cavaliers on January 14, Leonard became the third player in the shot-clock era to score 43-plus points in under 29 minutes played. On January 16 against the Orlando Magic, he became the fourth player in Clippers franchise history to have 35-plus points, five-plus rebounds, five-plus assists and five-plus steals and joined World B Free and Bob McAdoo as the only players in franchise history to score 30 or more points in five or more consecutive games.
In his ninth NBA season, Leonard is averaging career-highs in points (26.9) and assists (5.1). The Clippers currently rank second in the Western Conference with a 30-13 record and have won seven of their last nine games.
Sixers guard Simmons produced a series of stellar performances to earn Player of the Week honours in the Eastern Conference for the third time in his career.
For the week, the 76ers played in four games, winning three. Simmons recorded a total of 85 points through four games, averaging 21.3 points on the week. The 2019 NBA All-Star notched 20-or-more points in a career-high four straight games. Simmons also averaged 9.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game, the only Eastern Conference player to record such averages last week and one of three in the NBA.
Simmons registered a double-double in three of the four games, with all three coming in the form of 20-10 games (two point-rebound double-doubles and one point-assist double-double). The NBA steals leader recorded at least one swipe in each of the four games, sending his season total to 88.
Overall, the third-year NBA player has upped his streak of double-digit scoring to 18-consecutive games, the fourth-longest streak of his career.
On January 17, against Brooklyn at home, Simmons played in his 200th career game. Through those 200 contests, Simmons has scored 3,228 points, collected 1,660 rebounds and dished out 1,608 assists. Simmons joined Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson as the only three players in NBA history to reach at least 3,000 points, 1,500 rebounds and 1,500 assists in 200 career games.
Simmons currently leads the league in steals (88), steals per game (2.1) and loose balls recovered (77) and is averaging 15.5 points, 7.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists (fifth in NBA) per game.
Simmons is the only Eastern Conference player this season averaging at least 15 points, seven rebounds and eight assists per contest. The only other players in the league doing so are Lakers' LeBron James and Dallas' Luka Doncic.
