The NBA announced on Tuesday that Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James won the recognition as the Western Conference Player of the Month for January. However, not a lot of people are happy with this decision and believe that Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard deserved the honour.
Over the last six games, Lillard feels like he has decoded the secret to unparalleled offense. He is averaging 48.8 points, 10.2 assists 7.2 rebounds in hopes of carrying his team to the Playoffs and knock off Ja Morant’s Memphis Grizzlies from the eighth spot in the West. For his supernatural efforts, the guard was also made the Player of the Week in his conference twice last month.
But did the five-time All-Star get snubbed to James for the Player of the Month award? Let’s compare:
In January alone, LeBron James averaged 25.4 points, 8.1 rebounds, 10.4 assists and 1.4 steals while shooting 50.4 percent from the field and 33.8 from three-point range in 13 appearances. His team, the Lakers won 10 and lost 4 games during that tenure while James sat out of just one game. He also went on to score nine double-doubles, including three triple-doubles as well..
On the other hand, Lillard averaged a league-best 34.1 points, 8.4 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 15 appearances in the month. He made 48.8 percent of his shots, and 45.1 percent from beyond the arc. He also scored the first triple-double of his career while having himself seven double-doubles during the same stint as well. The Point Guard also went on to break his own franchise record in scoring with 61 points against the Golden State Warriors on January 20.
The Lakers and the Trail Blazers also faced each other on the day the purple and gold franchise had paid tribute to Kobe Bryant, his 13 year old daughter Gianna Bryant and seven other people who lost their lives in a horrible helicopter crash a couple of weeks ago.
Lillard played on a couple of levels higher than the rest of the men present on the court and led his team to an easy yet historic win.
While the kind of numbers James put up were nothing too unusual for him but Lillard’s godly form has trickled down into February and maybe he is get the Player of the Month honour this time around?
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