By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Nikola Jokic averaged 27.3 points, 14.3 rebounds, 8.3 assists, two blocks and 1.7 steals during the past week and earned the NBA Western Conference Player of the Week award along the way. That is his first this season and sixth in career.
Per the Denver Nuggets:
The NBA has announced that Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić has been named the Western Conference Player of the Week for games played from Monday Feb. 3rd to Sunday Feb. 9th.
Jokić wins the award for the first time this season and has earned Western Conference Player of the Week honors six times in his career, three times last season and twice in 2017-18.
Jokić, 24, averaged 27.3 points, 14.3 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 2.00 blocks and 1.67 steals while also shooting .621 from the field and .846 from the charity stripe during the week. The Serbian center helped lead the Nuggets to a 3-0 record, including back to back wins over Northwest division rivals Portland and Utah to improve the Nuggets’ division record to 9-0. The 3-0 week also moved Denver back into the number two spot in the Western Conference standings.
Jokić started the week by registering 29 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists, three blocks and two steals in a home win over the Trail Blazers. Denver then headed to Utah for the second game of a back-to-back where he put up a monster stat-line of 30 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists while also hitting a go-ahead step back jumper with under a minute left to put Denver up for good. Jokić became just the ninth player in NBA history to post a 30-point/20-rebound/10-assist triple double and is just the second player since the 1976-77 season to tally 31 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists in a game. Additionally, it was his 11th triple-double of the year (tied for 2nd in NBA) and 39th of his career (10th All-Time). He then capped the week off with 23 points, nine rebounds, six assists, three blocks and one steal in road win at Phoenix.
Jokić was recently named a Western Conference All-Star reserve for the second consecutive season and is averaging 20.6 points, 10.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists on the year. He is the only player in the NBA this season to average over 20+ points, 10+ rebounds and 6+ assists per game, and if he maintains those numbers it would be his second straight year reaching those marks and would remain one of only six players in NBA history to accomplish this (Chamberlain, Robertson, Bird, Westbrook, Garnett, Jokić).