NBA Player of the Week: Dwight Howard and His Recent Offensive Explosion

The Player of the Week this week is Dwight Howard.

Before I begin, let me tell you what you can expect to read in this article and the weekly ones that follow.

Every Sunday I will sit down and look over the top performers over the last five games and see who has been the best of the bunch.

I will look at basic statistics; I will also look at the teams the players faced and consider whether the numbers they put up are to be expected.

After I collect that data I will pick a player and write about why he was the performer of the week.

So, let's begin.

This week, it was very difficult to pick the best player simply because there were so many great performers and placing one over the others was nearly impossible. However, there can only be one and well, Dwight Howard is the one.

He had an absolutely great week even for a player of his caliber and helped his team to a 4-1 record in his last five games.

Here are his stats in case you are wondering:

GP	MPG	PPG	FG%	FT%	RPG	BPG	SPG	TOPG	PFPG
5	38	26	60	50	14	2	1	2	2.8

Impressed? I was.

What makes these stats look even better is the competition he faced to get them.

Out of the five teams he faced, four of them rank in the top 15 in fewest points allowed. He also had some great matchups when he faced JaVale McGee, Tim Duncan, Roy Hibbert and Anderson Verejao.

In fact the only "easy" game he had was against Miami, where he grabbed 18 rebounds and managed to score 24 points all the while attempting 16 free throws.

Here are also the teams he faced and how their defense ranks in points allowed:

Nov. 20 @Indiana(8)—W 90-86

Nov. 22 @San Antonio(14)—L 97-106

Nov. 24 Miami (6)—W 104-95

Nov. 26 Cleveland (15)—W 111-100

Nov. 27 @Washington (24)—W 100-99

Others who received consideration:

Derrick Rose: 42MPG, 30PPG, 46FG%

Dirk Nowitizki: 38 MPG, 29PPG, 3P 47%

So, that's it! I would ask you to please comment and tell me how I could make these articles more enjoyable and improve their quality! Since this is my first one, I realize it has flaws and I most definitely want to hear them.

Just leave you suggestions on the bottom and stay tuned for next week's article!