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The NBA is officially back! This means it’s the return of the Hoopers of the Week series.

For those who are not familiar with the series, the rules are simple. Each week, I select one player from each conference who balled out and put their team on their back. Some weeks they could be All-Stars and MVPs. Other weeks it could be role players and rookies on the rise. Every week is another chance for players across the NBA to put the rest of the league on notice. But enough with the introductions, let’s get into these standout players from Week 1 of the 2021-22 of the 75th Anniversary NBA season. 

My first picks of the season for Hoopers of the Week are Chicago Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine and Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry. Let’s recap the clinic these two guys have put on so far!

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We are finally here! The waning days of the 2021 NBA regular season where the Playoff picture is rounding out into its final form and teams preparing for their Road to the NBA Finals.

Yesterday marked the regular season’s last slate of regular-season games under the Friday Night Lights and boy did it go off in a bang. Unsung casts of characters. Triple-doubles and career-highs. And most importantly, we had a few playoff position clinches as well.

But enough talking, let’s get into these games as we highlight the last set of Friday Night primetime performers of the 2021 regular season!

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The 2021 NBA Regular Season is coming to a close and the NBA Playoff picture is slowly starting to shape up. When looking at the MVP race, it seems pretty obvious that consensus top candidates are Nikola Jokic in the West and Joel Embiid in the East. These guys have been jockeying for the top spot and most have argued that Jokic has separated himself as the guy due to his availability and his play without Jamal Murray on the floor. Nonetheless, these guys have dominated the headlines, but what about the other guys in their conferences who have been carrying their respective teams in a similar way? As of late, there has been buzz for guys like Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, and even dare I say, Julius Randle. But instead, I want to highlight two guys who have not captured the same kind of late-season hype who really deserve some love. That is why this week, I happy to say that my Hoopers of the Week are Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard! Let’s get into it!

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The NBA regular season is quickly coming to a close with only a week left of games. The urgency across the league is truly starting to show as teams make their late-season postseason push. Every single game matters and every outcome influences a different storyline. Some teams are trying to control their playoff destiny by fighting to maintain their Top-6 seed. Other teams are jockeying for position within the Play-In tournament picture. At the end of the day, the fight for a spot in the postseason is underway and every night could have a serious impact on the Eastern and Western Conference standings.

On the second to last slate of Friday Night NBA regular-season games, we got some premiere matchups along with some interesting Playoff/Play-In implications. So, with that being said here are our top performers from last night’s matchups!

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This was truly a big week in the world of the NBA. Teams are constantly jockeying for playoff position with less than ten games left in the regular season. Players are starting to put their final stamps on the season in hopes of earning an NBA award or being name to one of the three All-NBA teams. But most of all, we got a handful of historic performances that really displayed the bright future ahead for the NBA with its new crop of ascending superstars. Two of these performances came at the hands of Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic who both had nights that will go down in the record books. That is why they are my honorary Hoopers of the Week! Let’s get into it!

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Yet another set of lopsided Friday night matchups as teams look to assert their dominance heading into the playoffs. With ten or so games left before the Play-In tournament, the landscape of the NBA is set where every team qualifies as one of the following: A set playoff team jockeying for position, a Play-In team holding on for dear life, or a team playing spoiler. No matter where your favorite team sits in the standings, each game matters down this final homestretch of the regular season. This Friday night we got blowouts, a historic comeback, and the return of LeBron James! The final two-three weeks of the NBA regular have more at stake than ever before as teams all look to close the season on some kind of positive note. With that being said, let’s take a look at all of the Primetime Players from Friday night’s slate of games in the race to the 2021 Playoffs!

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Last week, I was so focused on the unbelievable sustainability of the New York Knicks that I completely overlooked what was going on over in The Bay. Won’t make that mistake again.

Last week, I was so focused on the unbelievable sustainability of the New York Knicks that I completely overlooked what was going on over in The Bay. Won’t make that mistake again.

After being named the NBA’s Player of the Week for his mind boggling stretch it only seemed right to show Stephen Curry the just due that he deserves.

The man is averaging career-highs in points (31.2) and rebounds (5.6). His splits are out of this world as he is shooting 48.9% from the floor on a career-high 20.9 attempt and 42.5% from three on a career-high 12 attempts. He is even going crazy from the free throw line, shooting 92.4% on a career-high six attempts.

Across the NBA media landscape, analysts and fans alike have been debating on whether Curry’s 33-year-old season is arguably his best season thus far (even in comparison to his unanimous MVP season back in 2015-16). With a stat line like his, Curry is hands down the talk of the town in the NBA world.

That is why I undoubtedly am naming Stephen Curry the sole and unanimous Hooper of the Week. Let’s get into it!

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As the season trudges on with 15-20 games left in the regular season, the most exciting thing about the NBA season is the constant jockeying for position in the NBA Playoffs. The teams in the Top-6 are fighting to keep themselves out of the Play-In tournament. The teams sitting between 7th and 11th are battling it out for a chance to earn a playoff spot through the Play-In tournament. So last night, we got a very silent but deadly lineup of games as we only had seven games on the docket but they all had playoff implications of some sort. Some teams were looking to keep their season alive. Others were looking to keep themselves atop their respective conferences. Playoff-caliber basketball is slowly kicking up as teams make a late-season push and things are getting really interesting as we inch closer to the homestretch.

With that being said, here are our Primetime Performers from last night’s slate of games under the pressure of the Friday Night Lights.

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In the race to the 2021 NBA Playoffs, this grueling time in the league is also part of what defines players and teams as great, compared to just good. There are young teams on the rise looking to make a name for themselves and provide a statement for their organization that they are next up on the NBA Powerhouse totem pole. Teams like these have a group of young guys playing with a chip on their shoulder and are looking to prove the world wrong. Then there are the established veteran teams/players that know that seeding in the playoffs is everything and that finishing strong means just as much as starting out the season hot. These teams tend to have a top-20 caliber player with a handful of pieces around him that he needs to help elevate in order to reach playoff contention.

For this week’s Hoopers of the Week, he represents those young squads looking to put the NBA world on notice and show that he is ready for the bright lights of the NBA postseason So, representing the “Up Next” is first-time All-Star forward Julius Randle for the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference. Let’s get right into it!

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This is probably one of the toughest parts of the season for NBA players, coaches, and fans alike. Teams are jockeying for playoff position as the postseason gets closer by the day. Players across the league are missing games due to injury or being sat for tanking purposes.

This weekend we are missing a lot of fire power as Donovan Mitchell went down with injury yesterday, Jamal Murray is out for the rest of the season, and a handful of teams are sitting their top guys to conserve their health heading into the postseason/offseason.

So, on this week’s edition of the NBA Friday Night Recap, there are going to be a handful of games you may have never heard or never expected to have such a great performance. With this all-in mind, let’s get right into it and take a look at some of Friday’s top performers under the bright lights!

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This week the internet and NBA Twitter were set on fire with the release of ESPN’s NBA Top-25 Players Under the age of 25. Many agreed, many disagreed but in the end the list gave commentators and basketball fans something to openly debate. With the NBA world all discussing the top young players in the game, this was the perfect time for some of these guys to either show why they deserved to be on the list or show why they deserved to be higher up on the list. This week we are going to focus on two of the Top-5 players who were ranked on this list. These guys have had a great season thus far and really showed out this week with some primetime performances and some big time wins over top-level competition. With all that being said, this week’s Hoopers of the Week are rising stars Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic. Let’s get into it!

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Now, this is what I’m talking about! Last Friday we were stuck with a handful of games that were blowout games that were done by the end of the first half. Completely uninteresting and lacking any kind of competitive spirit. This week we’ve got a few career-high performances, two overtime games, and a big-time walk-off buzzer-beater. This is what games under the Friday night lights should look like. Especially when nearly every team is still legitimately in the hunt for either a Top-8 seed in the playoff or for a shot in the Play-In tournament to make the postseason. With such a great night full of great performances, you know we have to highlight the players who shined the brightest. So, with that being said, here are some of the top performers who came up big last night. Let’s get right into it!

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