Giannis Wins Eastern Conference Player Of The Week... Again!

Nov 29, 2022 - 2:17 AM

Milwaukee Bucks" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nduOb6YuO164bq76vQLZtvpjA8A=/0x156:3000x1844/1920x1080/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71685216/1445270855.0.jpg" />

In an announcement that won’t surprise many around here, Giannis Antetokounmpo is once again, the East’s Player of the Week as named by the NBA. If this sounds familiar, it’s because he already won the award once this season, back on Halloween.

I, for one, expected this after he broke the 30-point mark in all four games the Bucks played last week. To wit, beyond the impressive numbers above, here are some others since last Monday: a .611/.250/.644 shooting slash, 141 points (leading the league comfortably over Trae Young), a 62.2% effective field goal percentage, and a 64.2% true shooting percentage all on a whopping 40.2% usage rate (also the highest in the league over the past week among players who appeared for more than one minute—sorry Vit Krejci). Oh, and a 3-1 record is always nice too.

After missing a week of action in early November, Giannis’ way-too-early MVP campaign stalled out a bit. His first week back was pretty rough too, and not just because he was missing a lot at the line. Until last Monday, he’d shot under 50% from the field in every game this month, and dipped below 40% in his first two games back after the layoff. Now that he’s putting up such great efficiency on an even higher volume of shots over the past week, he may be swinging the MVP pendulum back toward him from names like Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic.

This is the 19th time in his career that the league bestowed Giannis with the honor. He beat out an unusually—and probably unnecessarily—crowded field. That’s nine other players as opposed to the West’s five, which seems like a pretty typical number based on the press releases we see for this award every week.

Anyway, congrats as usual to our basketball god. Keep working on those free throws.