NBA Europe: quick Sengun's growth and Porzingis Wizardry in Washington / News - Basketnews.com

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As we are fast approaching the end of the regular season, teams have different objectives. Some of them are trying to get the best position and the player setup possible for the postseason, while others are putting a big effort to make their way to play-in.

Luka Doncic

MIN:35.61PTS:27.91 (52.39%)REB:9.12As:8.48ST:1.16BL:0.53TO:4.5GM:58ProfileNBA2021/2022

How are the Euro players doing?

Well, starting with the usual suspects, they are good as usual. Luka Doncic did not have a good night against the Timberwolves at the beginning of the week but came to himself when the Mavericks needed him the most: A win against the Utah Jazz was crucial for grabbing the 4th place and home-court advantage against their probable playoff opponents.

It was one of those nights where Doncic was on fire from the field, making 11 shots from 21, accompanied by a 4/7 3-pointer accuracy and eventually 32 points, 10 rebounds double-double performance.

Giannis? He had one of those rare nights where he was held below 30 points against the Bulls, but the loss came in the next game against a red-hot Memphis Grizzlies. It was only their 2nd defeat in the last 11 games.

Nikola Jokic, on the other hand, averaged 31 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 6.7 assists during last week, but he could not save the Nuggets from getting torched by the unstoppable Phoenix Suns.

The Nuggets currently sit in 6th place in the West, but they need to be sharper than that at the finish to avoid the Grizzlies or the Suns in the first round of the playoffs. The Timberwolves are chasing being only one game behind.

Bogdan Bogdanovic gave his best to score 32 points with 4/10 3-pointers to keep the New York Knicks away from threatening the Hawks'play-in position in 10th place.

This was his second 30+ game that the Serbian shooting ace in a span of 10 days, after the night where he brought the Grizzlies down with a near-perfect 5/6 effort beyond the arc. When he scores 30+, the Hawks are 6-0.

Theo Maledon

Team:Oklahoma City ThunderPosition:PG, SGAge:20Height:192 cmWeight:79 kgBirth place:FranceProfileNewsStatistics

Now being 4 wins above the Knicks, could the Hawks achieve higher spots other than the 10th? It is possible, but the 9th placed Brooklyn Nets are two wins away. Their next meeting scheduled for Sunday, the 3rd of April, could be crucial.

It would also be where Goran Dragic will meet Bogdanovic.

The Slovenian guard is probably enjoying life after missing an important part of the season while having some significant minutes, accompanying Kevin Durant and backing up Kyrie Irving. In the last 5 games, Dragic is averaging 10.0 points, 6.2 assists, and +5.4 plus/minus index.

Are these all, not all? Here are some more takes from the last week about European stars of the NBA.

Sengun keeps growing fast

Alperen Sengun has already exceeded the expectations and showed how big was the Rockets'decision to bring him to Houston. But the Turkish rookie center does not stop there. He is rapidly evolving and carrying his game to new heights game after game.

The confidence accrued brought him into a place where he even dares to bully LeBron James with some jump hooks sent over him, followed by a blocked shot.

Last week, Sengun reached a new career-high, accumulating 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists against Portland Trail Blazers with 10/16 FG shooting and 2/4 beyond the 3-point arc.

He became the youngest player to catch those stats in less than 27 minutes on the court.

That was also the second game in succession where Houston Rockets got two W against the tanking Trail Blazers.

True, playing against a team that lost 13 of their last 15 and also the second-worst defense in the NBA was certainly helpful, but that should not undermine Sengun's discernible overall development.

Alperen's natural delivery skills are the most salient feature of him when it comes to hitting the social media platforms big, but he's blossoming in other departments as well.

The rebounding capacity could be one example.

While his defensive rebounding percentage is still very low for his position with 16.8% (in the 43 percentile) but the defensive rebounding averages show a different picture (5.2 per game) than the rest of the season (3.5 per game) in the last five games.

Last week, those 11 rebounds against the Mavericks' bigs Dwight PowellorMaxi Kleber were particularly impressive. Four of them were offensive boards, where Sengun showed his potential to create putbacks or second-chance points to become another threat to the opponents.

Sengun is still struggling with the three-ball, but lately, he caught a rising trend with 4/9 in his last five games. The accuracy needs to be sustained in a consistent path, but he selects good shots, which is an important sign.

Porzingis comes along with the Wizards

In February, one of the most intriguing trades was surely the Mavericks letting Kristaps Porzingis go to the Wizards and welcoming Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans on board.

Well, until now, The Mavericks GM Nico Harrison should be quite happy about this decision after climbing to 4th place in the Western Conference, but what about Porzingis himself?

It took some time for the Latvian and the Wizards to adjust, but now everything is slowly coming together.

With 6 games remaining in the regular season and 5 games behind theHawks,it cannot be said that the Wizards are in contention for the play-in spots, but they don't seem to be making an awful finish, too. Porzingis is one of the top reasons why they did not surrender yet.

Porzingis' ground zero for his new team was perhaps the Lakers' game, especially that 16-point 4th quarter to lead his team to pull off a comeback win against LeBron James and co.

After that game, the Latvian big brought a remarkably positive impact on the Wizards' offensive unit.

Last week, the Wizards played four games and won against the Warriors, and the Pistons (also losing to the Bucks and Rockets), where Porzingis averaged 22.8 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.5 steals, and 2.0 blocks) in the process.

Against the Pistons, his 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks with a clutch shot with 30 seconds remaining helped the Wizards to rally from behind to get the W.

In those times, he did not score, but he drew fouls and kept the interior defenders busy: ask Draymond Green.

Out of 84 fouls that Wizards drew in the three games last week, 35% of them were on Porzingis. That created 28 free throws, whereas Porzingis made 25 of them.

It is important to note that Deni Avdija also had a good week offensively, epitomized by 21 points against the Pistons, his season-high.

It was also the 3rd double-double of the season for Avdija, with 10 rebounds. The Israeli forward shot 8/18 (44%) from the 3-point range and keeps deepening his game dimensions alongside his usual defensive acumen.

Theo Maledon's Best Week in A While

The Western Conference is too good to be competitive for Oklahoma City Thunder, where even the play-in race is in quite neck-to-neck intensity with the Pelicans, the Spurs, and the Lakers are trying to make it to the post-season.

The Thunder, on the other hand, are hoping for a good lottery pick, having the 4th worst record in the NBA.

Nevertheless, the values they accumulate are showing signs of development which could give a glimpse of hope to the franchise in this transitional era. We wrote about Aleksey Pokusevski's scoring exploits in our earlier version, but also there is Theo Maledon.

The second-year French guard had a productive week, with the two best scoring figures of the season coming in a period of 3 days.

Against the Orlando Magic, Maledon scored 25 points and 6 assists to lead his team to the win finally, after 10 games. For the record: his Czech teammate Vit Krejci made his first NBA double-double of his career with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

The Magic is not a team known for a monster defense, but Maledon passed the heat test in the next game against the Nuggets. With the help of fellow European player, Pokusevski, who scored 17 points, he gave another 20+ points effort, which was not enough for the win.

While still far from being a good shooter, he hit 50% from 3-point range in the last 10 attempts and 55% from the field, well beyond his season average of 41%.

The French guard also keeps proving his worth through his disruptive skills in the defense, as he made at least a steal in all but one in the last 8 games.

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