Luka Doncic Beats Out Ja Morant For NBA's West Player Of Month
The NBA officially announced the recipients of the Conference Player of the Month award for February with the winners being Chicago Bulls' DeMar DeRozan being the Eastern Conference winner and Dallas Mavericks' Luka Doncic being the Western Conference representative.
Doncic carried the Dallas Mavericks to a 7-3 record with averages of 34.7 points (first in NBA), 10.3 rebounds, and 8,8 assists. He led the Mavs in each of those statistical categories while recording four games with at least 40 points and nearly setting the Mavs franchise record for points in a game with 51 against.
Andrew D. Bernstein | Credit: NBAE via Getty Images
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
There was added attention placed on Doncic during February due to the Mavericks moving on from Kristaps Porzingis at the trade deadline. With no player being considered a star on the roster aside from Doncic, he raised his game with the highest usage rate in the NBA and led the team to wins.
There was speculation about whether Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies was going to out-edge Doncic for the Western Conference Player of the Month. His 52-point outing against the San Antonio Spurs made a lot of waves around the league—capping off a month with averages of 33.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 5.9 assists.
“I saw the dunk and the last-second buzzer-beater. Amazing. He’s been playing amazing this season, MVP level," Doncic said of Morant's play this season when talking with Callie Caplan of Dallas Morning News. "Everybody saw this season what he is, and he’s an unbelievable player, unbelievable skills and so fun to watch.”
There will be much attention on both Luka Doncic and Ja Morant during the stretch run of the regular season as their respective teams are angling for positioning in the Western Conference standings.
Currently, the Grizzlies rank third in the Western Conference and trail the Golden State Warriors by just a half-game. As for the Mavericks, they hold the fifth spot and are just a game ahead of the sixth-ranked Denver Nuggets and trail the fourth-ranked Utah Jazz by 2.5 games.
