Blazers’ Damian Lillard Named West Player of the Week

Portland Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard has been named the NBA Player of the Week in the Western Conference.

By leading the Portland Trail Blazers to a surprisingly good 4-0 start in the 2022-23 NBA season, Damian Lillard has been named the Player of the Week in the Western Conference. Through the Blazers’ first four contests, Lillard is tallying an incredible stat line of 33.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 0.8 steals per game. The 32-year-old scoring point guard is also shooting the ball with high efficiency, highlighted by a 50% overall clip (21.0 field goal attempts) from the field, including 40% from beyond the arc (10.0 three-point attempts) and 91.7% from the charity stripe (9.0 free throw attempts).

Of course, these spectacular numbers have a greater impact with the Blazers winning all of their games so far. Despite very tough assignments at the beginning of their current campaign, the Blazers find themselves unblemished through four games. They survived close games against the Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, and Los Angeles Lakers, then followed it up with a 25-point runaway win against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.

Damian Lillard didn’t start the season on an explosive note, but he accumulated consecutive 41-point outings against the Suns and Lakers, then tallied 31 points and eight assists against the Nuggets. He’s getting plenty of help too, with rising guard Anfernee Simons, newly-acquired Jerami Grant, and all-around wing Josh Hart also delivering good performances.

Along with Lillard, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum was also named Player of the Week in the Eastern Conference. Tatum has also been getting buckets at a very efficient rate, leading the Celtics to a 3-1 start this season.