Week 7 of this 2024-25 NBA campaign has just passed and the league announced Luka Doncic and Tyler Herro as the best players of the week in their respective conferences. This is the first time both players receive this honor so far this season, as they teams have shown improvement in the past games.
For the Dallas guard, he went led the Mavericks to an impressive 3-0 record from December 2-8, beating Memphis, Washington and Toronto. This weekend, the Slovenian reached the 79th triple-double of his young career, and his second-consecutive one.
With their latest 125-118 victory against the Raptors, the Mavericks extend their current-winning streak to seven matches with their \. With Saturday’s performance, the Slovenian has now moved to the list’s seventh spot.
NBA Players of the Week for Week 7.
West: Luka Dončić (@dallasmavs)
East: Tyler Herro (@MiamiHEAT) pic.twitter.com/mcc6oqNMBo— NBA (@NBA) December 9, 2024
This means that the guard has surpassed NBA icons like Wilt Chamberlain and James Harden at the age of 25. The next one on the list is none other than his own coach Jason Kidd, who displayed 107 triple-doubles during his 19-year career.
“I guess I’ve got to sit him,” the Mavericks tactician joked after the game, aware that the European star will be hoping to earn his third-straight triple-double during Tuesday night’s NBA Cup matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who lead the Western Conference standings.
Just during the first half of their game against Toronto, the Dallas star had already stacked up 15 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds. You could tell he was inspired as he drained in a 35-foot shot at the second-quarter buzzer that gave his team a commanding 70-54 lead at the break, plus a no-look, over-the-head assists to Kyrie Irving just minutes before.
“That’s an incredible feat for Luka,” Kidd said of his player moving past legends such as Chamberlain. “When you talk about his skill set, filling up the stat sheet, he’s had two here, he can run them off. We always expect him to have a triple-double, or we sometimes take him for granted for triple-doubles. I think right now you can see that he’s starting to get into a groove.”
The young Miami star earned this weekly accomplishment for the first time in his career, as he gained momentum after his incredible display against the Lakers
Believe it or not, Tyler Herro was crowned the best player of the week for the first time in his six-year career, having posted strong numbers through his past four games, averaging 25.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists in 33 minutes per match.
The 24-year-old scored a total of 31 points against the purple and gold last week, shooting 11-of-19 from the field and 9-of-16 from range. After the game at the Kaseya Center, coach Erik Spoelstra singled out his young player and delivered some special praise for him.
“What I like about it is he’s one of the best shooters on the planet, and he’s ignitable,” the Miami tactician said of Herro during his postgame press conference. “If you just stay with it, at any point, he can go on one of those avalanches.”
Spoelstra warned other teams not to give him space. “But you know, you give him open threes, which the last couple of games, he was getting good looks, and that’s just the nature of the game,” he added. “Sometimes it doesn’t go for you, but those are great looks, and then you’re still able to do other things.”
