Lakers forward LeBron James and Raptors forward Brandon Ingram have been named Players of the Week for the week of April 6-12, according to the league (Twitter links).
The Western Conference winner, James averaged 24.0 points, 9.7 assists and 6.0 rebounds per contest as the Lakers won three straight contests to close the season and clinch home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs despite playing without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. LeBron had back-to-back double-doubles on Thursday and Friday, putting up 26 points and 11 assists in Golden State and then 28 points and 12 assists vs. Phoenix.
Ingram averaged 25.5 points per game on 57.8 percent shooting from the field across four games as the Raptors went 3-1 to wrap up their season and clinched the No. 5 seed in the East. The veteran forward poured in a season-high 38 points to go along with seven rebounds and seven assists in Thursday’s victory over Miami.
It’s the first Player of the Week award of the season for either James or Ingram, though it’s the 70th time LeBron has won it over the course of his 23-year NBA career. Ingram has now earned the honor five times.
Deni Avdija (Trail Blazers), Kevin Durant and Amen Thompson (Rockets), and Terrence Shannon Jr. (Timberwolves) were the other nominees from the Western Conference, while Paolo Banchero (Magic), Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns (Knicks) and Jalen Duren (Pistons) were also nominated in the East.
Yes, but, did they make the all interview first team, lols. Adam Silver man 🤦♂️
The worst Vampire ever.
Ingram>LeBron, lol
Ingram and Randle were Lakers picks and could be still hooping for them if it wasn’t for LeBron.
Lakers are fine with the results of not having Brandon Ingram and Julius Randle. Not franchise altering players although I’m happy for BI.
Also wouldn’t have had AD to trade for Luka if those two were still on the Lakers
The LeLakers last 4 games, for the sake of clarity:
Apr 7 – blown out by the Thunder
Apr 9 – beat the Warriors B string missing almost their entire starting 5
Apr 10 – beat the Suns with no Booker, no Brooks, etc.
Apr 12 – beat the actively tanking Jazz
Yeah, no surprise to me that these are the games that LeMickey decides to statpad in full force, especially now that he doesn’t have to share the ball and FGA’s. What happened to his “foot injury management” which only seems to flare up against good teams? What a clown.
And skipped the Thunder. He’s the stat pad king.
Death, taxes….and LeBron coming up short in the playoffs; after all, this WILL mark the 19th occasion in 23 tries that he’ll be walking off the court in springtime as a loser. The first is LIKELY; the second is tough to call; and the third is more of a fantasy/wishful thinking (I’ll take just the first though)
(1) New majority Laker owner Walters holds a press conference the day after Lakers eliminated to announce the team will not be offering LeBron a contract for ‘26-‘27
(2) The summer goes by with no teams interested/offering LeBron a contract
(3) PED allegations finally come to a head in the fall, and Silver suspends LeBron from any involvement in NBA/NBA Europe for 15 years
He will be part owner of Vegas. Cleveland guess all in fur Giannis and Durant by trading Mobley,Allen, Schroeder,Strus, and Merrill. Then LeBron on a minimum joins team avengers.
Some of you people are truly morons. The Western conference standings were so close that they could have easily fallen to 5TH and lost home court advantage against the Rockets. Did you want him to hand the team’s fate to Rui Hachimura?
Secondly,if he was “stat padding”, as you say, wouldn’t it make sense to play against the Thunder? You know…for stats?
Morons, I swear…
BI another genius move of Masai, the franchise will miss him in a couple of years