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Week 22 of the 2018-19 season of the NBA has come to a close, with some great performances that had everyone jumping in their seats. There were a total of 49 games that took place this week.
The Milwaukee Bucks played the Philadelphia 76ers in a massive match on Sunday night, while the Golden State Warriors took on the Houston Rockets in a mouth-watering repeat of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday night.
The Warriors also played the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night. With this in mind, let us take a look at the 5 best players who played at another level this week.
#5. Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks)
The Atlanta Hawks are definitely not competing for any laurels this season but they are still a superb young team, with some great future NBA players. They had a chance to draft Luka Doncic but traded him to the Dallas Mavericks for Trae Young and a future 1st round draft pick.
While it was a questionable decision at the time and with Doncic starting the season in some amazing form, many looked at the Hawks' decision as a really bad one. But for the past month and a half, including this week, Trae Young has been playing as a man possessed.
His shooting, which had been spotty and inconsistent at best, is now absolutely on point. He is launching from anywhere on the floor and making most of his shots. He has also developed his playmaking skills and become an elite point guard.
Young is averaging 18.4 points a game this season, along with 7.7 assists and 3.6 rebounds. His performances this week too have been of a similar vein, averaging 22.7 points a game, along with 5.7 assists and 4.3 rebounds a game.
His defence has been great too, getting at least 1 steal a game this past week. If he keeps this up, then he might be able to challenge Doncic for the Rookie of the Year title, considering he has slowed down a bit in the past few weeks.
#4. Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns)
The Phoenix Suns have been one of the worst teams in the Western Conference this season, even though they were expected to be one of the breakout teams this season.
The main reason for this was the grave underperformances their young forwards had put on display, hampering them massively and with Booker missing a lot of games due to injury, they did not have their best player on the court.
Booker has been a nuisance for opponents all season, having improved his ball handling while increasing his scoring numbers as well. He is now averaging 25.5 points, 6.8 assists and 4.1 rebounds this season.
This week though, he has been a man possessed, scoring 40 points in his most recent game against the New Orleans Pelicans, which they won in overtime. He also had 13 assists and 5 rebounds in that one.
Booker scored 29 and 27 points, along with 7 and 6 assists as well, against Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz respectively and is going on to show just how good of a player he has become.
#3. Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards)
Bradley Beal has been one of the most explosive guards in the league each time John Wall goes down. This year though, Wall has almost been out for the whole season and will end up missing next year too, and as a result, Beal has taken on the responsibility of team leader.
He has led from the front both with passion and has the numbers to back it up. He won them 3 of their 4 games last week and is averaging 26.2 points, 5.6 assists and 5.3 rebounds a game.
He has 2 back to back 40 point outings last week against the Memphis Grizzlies and Charlotte Hornets. He had 5 rebounds and 5 assists against the Hornets while he had 7 assists and 5 rebounds against the Grizzlies.
His other game was against the Sacramento Kings, where he scored 27 points along with 9 assists and 9 rebounds, almost getting a triple-double. He had 23 points, along with 7 assists and 6 rebounds against the Utah Jazz, making him one of the best players in the league this week and this season too.
#2. Kawhi Leonard (Toronto Raptors)
Kawhi could've been the best player this week possibly, but the Raptors ended up losing 2 of their 3 games this week, to teams that they could've beaten with relative ease.
The injury-stricken roster has been going through the motions in order to get the #1 spot in the eastern conference and Kawhi has been their driving force. Kawhi scored 25 points and grabbed 9 boards in a stunning loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers, before bouncing back in a solid win over the Los Angeles Lakers, where Kawhi had himself a great time, scoring 25 points with 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
Kawhi tried pushing the Raptors to a win, scoring 33 points and grabbing 10 rebounds along with 2 assists but still was unable to beat the Detroit Pistons. He has averaged a huge 27.1 points per game this season, along with 7.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists a game.
The Raptors need him performing at his best again if they want to win their remaining games and make a push for the top spot.
#1. Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks)
Giannis Antetokounmpo has been making a push for his maiden MVP title this season and has been performing really well all season long and this week has been no different as he led the Milwaukee Bucks to 2 out of 3 wins this week, the last one being a solid game for Giannis on a personal level but failed to get the win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
This season, Giannis found another gear, averaging 27.5 points, 12.7 rebounds and 6 assists a game, something that is very difficult to achieve for a big man. He has also been a superb defensive force, averaging 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks a game.
This week, he had a huge night against the Philadelphia 76ers, where he scored a massive 52 points, 16 rebounds and 7 assists, along with 2 steals and a block in just 36 minutes. He scored 33 points, 16 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks in another massive night against the Heat as well.
In the game against New Orleans, he played just 26 minutes but still had 24 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists in the win. Giannis has been playing at MVP levels and the Bucks would want him to keep playing like this in the run towards the playoffs.
