For the first time, Rudy Gobert has been recognized as one of the NBA’s Players of the Week.
The NBA announced Gobert was named the Western Conference Player of the Week for the games between March 11 and 17. During that stretch, he averaged 16.5 points on 69.4 percent shooting, 15.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. Including a monster game against the Nets that he played while being sick.
“I’m tired of Rudy feeling underappreciated,” Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said with a smile. “He got appreciated this week, right? He’s appreciated. I’m proud of him, he deserves it. It’s a great honor for him."
For his part, Gobert was surprised that he got the award, knowing that it usually goes to higher scorers.
“It’s a little something I appreciate,” Gobert said. “I’m doing the same thing I’ve been doing every week, and I’m going to keep doing it. I don’t really pay attention to Player of the Week, but it was pretty cool, a little surprise.”
It’s the Jazz’s third Player of the Week honor this season, as Donovan Mitchell earned two of them — one in January, one in February — for his scoring exploits. Gobert is the 55th Jazz player to have received the award.
Bradley Beal’s streak snapped
Washington’s Bradley Beal, the Jazz’s opponent Monday night, was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week. But the Jazz completely snapped his run of form, allowing him to score just 15 points on 4-for-12 shooting. Critically, they didn’t allow Beal to score a 3-pointer, as he went 0-3 from deep. He had made at least one three in his previous 47 games.
“They face guarded me the whole game. I’m not going to score 40 points every night. Everybody knows that,” Beal said. "I hope we don’t have that expectation because I’m not Superman. ... As soon as they shot the ball, I couldn’t even run to the corner without one guy on me or possibly two.”
Hamstrings
At this time of the year, and after some long flights, it’s natural for players to experience hamstring tightness. So it wasn’t too surprising when Derrick Favors felt his hamstring get a little bit tighter than he would have liked, causing him to sit out the second half against the Wizards.
Luckily, though, Favors says the injury is mild. He’ll see how he feels Tuesday and Wednesday, but expects to be able to play against the Knicks.
The Jazz got another player back from hamstring tightness to cover his spot, too. Thabo Sefolosha returned from a 2-game absence due to that malady on Monday, scoring six points in 11 minutes off the bench.
