If there was to be an Oklahoma City Thunder Player of the Week award there would only be one winner, week in and week out. With that in mind, the Russell Westbrook Runner-up Award hopes to celebrate the little guy – the Robin to Russ’ Batman.
The OKC Thunder had a more mixed week since last Saturday then they did in the seven days prior, as they lost their season series to the Golden State Warriors in dismal fashion.
What’s more, several Thunder players enjoyed good games either side of the GSW match-up, but failed to deliver on the big stage. An example of that is Doug McDermott, who scored 21 against the Sacramento Kings and 13 against the Philadelphia 76ers.
However against the Warriors he failed to registered a single point, missing both his attempts at the bucket from 14 minutes of play.
With that in mind, this week’s award goes to arguably the Thunder’s most consistent player this week – Enes Kanter.
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Enes’ Week
Points wise, Kanter’s week began with his ‘worst’ performance, as he scored 14 against a lackluster Sacramento side.
He finished with a plus/minus of +7, which saw him finish with around the average of the entire team, as five Oklahoma City players achieved lower differentials and exactly five recorded better.
The 24-year-old added four rebounds to his stat-line that night. Whilst that may not be the best, none of the Kings’ big men actually outscored Kanter, with Georgios Papagiannis coming the closest with a tying 14.
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Whilst no Thunder player really stood out in the side’s loss against Golden State on the Monday, Kanter’s performance was arguably one of the best of the bunch, with his return of 15 points only bettered by Victor Oladipo (17).
The big man was the only Oklahoma player to achieve a double-double on the night too, thanks to a total of ten rebounds, six of which came on the offensive side.
Regardless of plus/minus differentials, Enes Kanter scored five more points than any big man on the opposing team. He also scored three out of a possible four free throws.
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Kanter finished the seven-day stretch with his best performance of the week, in the Thunder’s blowout victory against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Swiss-born-Turk finished with a game-high 24 points and secured a back-to-back double-double in the process, as he added 11 rebounds to his play.
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The 24-year-old recorded an impressive +23 plus/minus differential as a result, and outscored any member of the Philly front-court by at least 11.
He was also lethal from both open play and from the free-throw line too – scoring eight-from-nine at each. It means that he boasted a near-90 percent shooting average.
As a result, Kanter converted 77 percent of his shots from the line across the three performances, and his field goal percentage was marginally above his season average, at .558 from the week’s games.
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