Philadelphia 76ers rookie guard Michael Carter-Williams and Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love were named the players of the week for the Eastern and Western Conferences, respectively.
Michael Carter-Williams and Kevin Love named players of the week
Michael Carter-Williams and Kevin Love took home player of the week honors to start the NBA season.
Mitchell Leff
Carter-Williams is the second player in NBA history to win the honor in his first week as a professional. The first was Shaquille O'Neal 21 years ago. Carter-Williams led the Philadelphia 76ers to a shocking 3-0 start, almost recording a quadruple-double with 22 points, 12 assists, seven rebounds and nine steals in his NBA debut against the Miami Heat. In his first three games, he averaged 20.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 9.0 assists,and a league-best 4.3 steals per game. He was projected to struggle with shooting and taking care of the ball, but Carter-Williams is shooting 8-for-17 (47.1 percent) from behind the three-point line and turning the ball over only 2.3 times per game so far.
Love's Timberwolves are also undefeated. He's averaging a league-best 29.7 points per game and his 14.7 rebounds per game are second to only Dwight Howard of the Houston Rockets. On top of that, he is shooting 50 percent from the field and 38 percent on three-pointers. Love's numbers might be even more ridiculous if he had played more than 29 minutes in Minnesota's 100-81 blowout victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.
Love was given both good and bad news by the NBA on Monday -- before being named player of the week in the West, he received a warning for flopping in Sunday's win over the New York Knicks.
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