And this is why sample size always matters. After struggling through their first few outings of the 2014-2015 season, the Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard and Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James have been named NBA Conference Players of the Week for games played between November 10 and November 16.
Lillard led the Blazers to 7-3 Blazers to a perfect 3-0 week by averaging 28.0 points and 8.7 assists per game while shooting flames from his right hand – the Oakland, CA native connected on 58.8 percent of his field goals and an incredible 70 percent of his three-point tries. This comes after Lillard failed to shoot above 31 percent from the floor in Portland’s first three games of the year, two of which were losses.
It’s almost like a team needs its best player to perform well to win. Lillard is clearly back on track, and seems primed for the best season yet of his burgeoning career.
The King has finally arrived, too. James is atoning for his decidedly poor start to the season by playing some of the best basketball of his career. He averaged 35.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 7.7 assists per game last week while guiding the Cavaliers to three wins and no losses, including an epic fourth quarter comeback victory on the road against the Boston Celtics.
5-3 Cleveland is clicking on all cylinders offensively now, feeding off of LeBron’s aggression to realize its identity as a whip-smart passing team that pushes the pace in transition. If the Cavs come around on defense, they might just yet prove the juggernaut so many envisioned during the preseason.
The lesson? Don’t overreact to trends gleaned from several games worth of play. Lillard and James have obviously regained the form that makes them two of the league’s best players, but still won’t play such dominant basketball over the course of the season from here on out – just like their labors to begin it were unsustainable, too. Even so, this is far closer to normal than those headline making struggles.
What do you think?
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