This was a short week, including only two games, both of which were wins. It also left us without the team's best player, Ray Allen, who is out with the ankle bruise. We were all wondering who would step up in Ray's absence, and the answer is that a number of players did.
Correction: this post originally claimed to use stats from the Hornets and Warriors, which was in error. The stats were from the Hawks and Hornets game and DID NOT include the Warriors game. Thanks to Fab for catching the error.
For this short stint of two games, featuring the Atlanta Hawks and New Orleans/Oklahoma City, two players really stood out, but I am giving the nod to one over the other, because one of those two was EXPECTED to step up, while the other was questionable.
I have decided to go with the struggling bench man turned solid starter, Damien Wilkins over All Star Rashard Lewis, because Damien came in to a challenging situation and gave the team exactly what it needed. He didn't try to replace Ray Allen, he simply played his own game and did all of the little things that the Sonics needed from him to find a way earn a pair of W's. His defense was solid, and his offense was better than adequate. His strong plus/minus value shows that the team was playing much better when he was on the floor, the closest starter in plus/minus was Chris Wilcox who had a +22.
Here is to you Damien, glad to see you finding your way, and looking forward to another great week.
Damien's Stats of the Week
# 1 in steals: 7 (Watson: 6)
#2 in combined value stats: 41 (Lewis: 50)
#2 in +/-: +26 (Watson had +29)
#3 in FG%: 53% (Wilks: 100%, Watson 57%)
#4 in Help Value: 18 (Watson: 21, Ridnour: 20, Lewis: 19)
#4 in Total Points: 24 (Lewis: 44, Wilcox: 37, Watson: 27)