NBA names Pascal Siakam Eastern Conference Player of the Week

After dealing with Friday night’s bad news, it’s been all smiles for the Toronto Raptors since: First was the stirring comeback victory against the Los Angeles Lakers, and now it’s the news that Pascal Siakam has been named Eastern Conference Player of the Week.

If you’ve been paying attention for the past week, the award shouldn’t really come as a surprise. But if you’ve been living under the proverbial rock, here’s your rundown of what Pascal’s been up to in the past seven days:

• 30.3 points per game
• 51.5% from the field (60.5% true shooting percentage)
• 11.3 rebounds per game
• 4.3 assists per game
• 30.5% usage rate
• Tied a career-high with 44 points against the Pelicans
• Had three sensational blocks against the Lakers
• Led the team to a 3-0 record

Not bad for a week’s work! (Now imagine if his three-ball was dropping — he was 6-for-21 over the three game stretch. Hey, it’s good to have areas to improve on!)

This is yet another award for Siakam’s mantle, along with his 2019 Most Improved Player award and his 2017 G League Finals MVP award; it marks the second time Siakam has won the Player of the Week award in his career, and the first this season. Siakam is now the sixth Raptor to have been honoured with player of the week more than once, joining DeMar DeRozan (10 times), Vince Carter (7), Chris Bosh (7), Kyle Lowry (4) and Kawhi Leonard (2).

And with Lowry and Serge Ibaka on the shelf for the next little while, Siakam’s usage will continue to be high — so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if another one of these is in his near future as well.