Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Isaiah Thomas of the Sacramento Kings maintained the point guard stranglehold on the NBA Rookie of the Month award.
Irving won for the Eastern Conference for the fourth straight month and Thomas earned his second straight Western Conference honor, the league announced Monday.
There have been eight monthly rookie awards this season, and point guards have won them all. Irving has swept the East honors and Ricky Rubio of the Minnesota Timberwolves won the first two awards for the West before getting injured.
In March, Irving lead all rookies with 19.9 points and 6.7 assists per game. He also averaged a rookie-best 7.4 points in the fourth quarter.
The Cavaliers were just 4-13 in March, with irving missing the first and last games of the month. Irving had the game-winning basket in a 100-99 win at Denver on March 7 and a season-high 12 assists two nights later in a win at Oklahoma City.
Irving also had his first career double-doubke with 19 points and 10 assists in a loss to Atlanta on March 18.
Thomas was second among West rookies in scoring at 13.6 points and the leader in assists at 4.9 per game.
The Kings were 6-12 in March. Thomas had 13 points and 10 assists in a 120-95 win over Boston on March 16 and 28 points and 10 assists in a 117-112 loss to San Antonio on March 28. He also had 19 points, seven assists, five rebounds and two steals in a 104-103 win at Utah on March 31.
Other nominees were Charlotte’s Kemba Walker, Denver’s Kenneth Faried, Detroit’s Brandon Knight, Houston’s Chandler Parsons, New Jersey’s MarShon Brooks and San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard.