CLEVELAND, OH - November 10th, 2008 - Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James was named today as the NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, November 3rd through Sunday, November 9th.
In four games during the week, James averaged an NBA-high 34.5 points on .469 shooting and 9.8 rebounds in 37.1 minutes per game. James has now won the award 14 times in his career: for the first time this season, three times during 2007-08, twice in 2006-07, five times in 2005-06 and on three occasions during the 2004-05 campaign.
At Dallas on November 3rd, James scored 29 points and tallied eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. With his second steal, he became the youngest player (23 years, 308 days) and fastest (395 games) to reach the following milestones in five statistical categories: 10,000 points, 2,500 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 700 steals and 300 blocks. On November 7th against Indiana, he scored 20 of his team-high 27 points in the second half, while adding nine rebounds, eight assists and four blocks in the Cavaliers 111-107 victory.
In the two games against Chicago (November 5th and November 8th), James averaged 41.0 points on .500 shooting, including shooting .444 (4-9) from the three-point range and .897 (26-29) from the free throw line, and 11.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists. On November 5th he finished with a game-high 41 points, nine rebounds and six assists, setting the franchise record for most points in a game against the Bulls. At Chicago on November 8, he posted a double-double with 41 points, including 16 points in the fourth quarter, and 13 rebounds. James became the first player to have consecutive games with 40 or more points versus Chicago since Rick Barry (1974-9175) and has now scored 30 or more points against the Bulls in seven straight games. He joins Nate Archibald (9 games from 3/10/72-10/10/73), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (8 games from 2/13/71-2/20/72) and Oscar Robertson (7 games from 12/2/67-11/9/68) as the only players to accomplish that feat.
The Phoenix Suns’ Amar’e Stoudemire was named the Western Conference Player of the Week. Other nominees for the Eastern Conference Player of the Week were Atlanta’s Joe Johnson, Boston’s Ray Allen, Miami’s Dwyane Wade, New York’s Zach Randolph, and Orlando’s Dwight Howard.