Chris Paul named Western Conference Player of the Week

It can't be easy winning Player of the Week honors where your team rarely needs you to play in the fourth quarter because the game is in hand and the bench is so good. Then again, these awards are as much about team success as anything, so it is definitely helps to be on a team that has a strong week, as the Clippers have for over four of them now. So it's not very surprising that Chris Paul has become the second Los Angeles Clipper in the past three weeks to win Western Conference Player of the Week honors, following up Blake Griffin's selection from two weeks ago.

Paul's per game numbers aren't necessarily dazzling -- compared to the East's POW, LeBron James, who averaged about 25 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists last week, Paul's own averages of 17 points, 13 assists and 4 steals seem kind of pedestrian at first. Then when you realize that he did it all in just 31 minutes per game, while making 53 percent of his shots overall and 54 percent from three point range, and that he had almost twice as many steals as turnovers during the week, you begin to realize what a good choice this was. And of course the Clippers were 3-0 during the week, extending their league-high win streak to 13.