You have to wonder what criteria the NBA is using to determine its Players of the Week.
Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love, who averaged 33.5 points, 15.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists while shooting 54.9 percent from the field and 52.2 percent from 3-point range, somehow did not win Western Conference Player of the Week honors announced Monday.
That honor went to Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant, whose numbers were 29.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists while shooting under 50 percent (42-of-86) overall and 45 percent from 3-point range. He also added 2.0 steals.
Oh, yeah, Durant’s team went 3-1 while Love’s team went 2-2. One of Minnesota’s losses was on Oklahoma City’s very tough home floor as the Timberwolves pushed the Thunder to double overtime and Love scored a franchise-record 51 points.
Winning is important, but it’s not like OKC was 4-0 and Minnesota was 1-3. The Thunder were a lousy game better, and needed 10 extra minutes on their supposedly awesome home floor to get that game over the extremely shorthanded Wolves.
The Eastern Conference winner was Atlanta Hawks guard Joe Johnson, who did some heavy lifting. The Hawks went 4-1 – winning an overtime game and a four-overtime marathon – as Johnson averaged 23.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists.
Johnson hit a handful of huge shots. He made tying 3-pointers vs. Cleveland on March 21 and Utah on March 25 and a game-winning 3-pointer at Washington on March 24. He also made a handful of big shots in the closing minutes as a rally vs. Boston fell just short.
In addition to Love, other nominees were Atlanta’s Josh Smith, Houston’s Goran Dragic, Miami’s Dwyane Wade, New York’s Amar’e Stoudemire, Orlando’s Ryan Anderson and Utah’s Al Jefferson.
It’s becoming almost laughable how often Love gets over looked for these type of accolades. How can those numbers not get you a player of the week nod? Unless his team went 0-4, but even then, it’s a coin flip for me.
This reminds me of the All-Star game where Griffin got the starting spot over Love. If you can watch Love and Griffin and not think Love is a better player and more valuable to his team, then stop watching.