Has this ever happened before?, two players on the same team win players of the month. http://www.wtsp.com/sports/nba/story.aspx?storyid=166125&catid=265 The Miami Heat’s LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, and Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant were named the Kia NBA Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month, respectively, for games played during December. James (25.2 ppg, 7.9 rpg and 6.8 apg) and Wade (27.9 ppg, 6.9 rpg and 4.1 apg) helped the Heat to a league-best 15-1 record, including franchise marks for total wins and road wins (10) in a month. Wade and James ranked second and third, respectively, in scoring in the Eastern Conference. James led the Heat in scoring seven times, in rebounds four times and in assists a team-high 13 times. James posted two triple-doubles on the month. Wade led Miami in scoring a team-high eight times, in rebounds five times and in assists three. Durant averaged a league-high 29.4 points as the Thunder went 11-5, tops in the Northwest Division. Durant shot .517 from the field, .411 from beyond the arc and .850 from the free throw line.
I have no problem with these choices. KD is now up to 46.2% from the field after starting the season very poorly. It will take a while for his 3-point percentage to recover.
i have never seen that before. but durant is shooting better. but i still would like for durant to expand his game more; durant is still the same player as last year (no improvements)
Pierce and Walker did it first in 2002 http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/pierce_walker_pom.html That was also the first time any two players from the same conference did it, since 1982.
for them to do that, OKC has to run through its schedule, which i doubt. what is surprising is kobe and pau have never gotten it together.
He's been posting up more, with some success. It doesn't look like he's improved because November was so terrible and Westbrook took up the slack. Give it time. His passing has also improved though the stats don't show it. What definitely hasn't improved is the careless TOs. One of these days KD will get it. There are certain moves he makes where you just know a TO is coming. At some point he will stop them because the risk/reward is so low.
i think his bad november was attributed to him teams keying on him more and he started taking a lot of bad, contested jumpers--hence the poor fg%. KD should get back to posting up and curling around screens more for his shots. he's not a very good shooter when he has to dribble and create his own shot. he can do that, but he won't be as efficient doing so. his passing, eh. i haven't seen it yet. i've caught my share of thunder games this year. but he can't put all the playmaking on westbrook. for the thunder to take the next level (besides having a consistent low post interior presence on both ends) is KD picking up the playmaking slack. having 2 great all-around players will make the thunder so hard to guard offensively. however, thunder's main problem right now is their defense. it's not at the level it was last year when they were at their best.
I watch them too and November was more about his shooting touch being off. He missed a boatload of jumpers that normally go in. His shot selection and opportunities didn't change much in December. Completely agree on defense, which is why their better record (to date) than last season actually feels worse. Last season, you knew what was coming in the 2nd half when they would clamp down and frustrate teams. This year, it's only happened a few times. Defense isn't a part of the personality of this year's squad and they seem shakier because of it. Did you catch Ibaka's Dream Shake the last 2 games? He hit one against the Hawks and missed against the Spurs. I had a flashback. :grin: At some point Scott Brooks must dial down Jeff Green's minutes when he plays poorly and is overmatched. When they play against real PFs, he's gotta get Collison and Ibaka in sooner. For JG to be shooting 42%/27%, playing sorry defense and still getting 38 mins/game is just dumb. At least 5 of those minutes should go to Collison when Green is stinking. JG is OKC's equivalent to Rafer (I exaggerate slightly).
obviously you know more about the thunder than me. but yes, i agree wholeheartedly on green's part. PS - this is lebron's 16th player of the month award, tied for highest in NBA history with jordan. that's amazing considering his age.
Well this is LBJ's 7th year in the league already. If MJ skipped college to play NBA he'd probably have more players of the month than he did.
I think it has also helped Lebron that he's played in an Eastern conference that has been lacking in star player for a number of his years in the league. Young MJ played in the same conference as Bird, Thomas, et al.
