Shaedon Sharpe’s Scoring Prowess Wins Him Blazer of the Week Honors

The Portland Trail Blazers went 3-1 this week with wins over the Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs broken up by a loss to the Chicago Bulls in the middle. However, despite the success of the week, it ended with Portland being mathematically eliminated from the NBA play-in race.

With a couple of wins, and some great performances interspersed throughout the week, there is still a host of options for Blazer of the Week despite the negative ending. With one week remaining in the season, the penultimate Blazer of the Week is Shaedon Sharpe.

Sharpe averaged 26.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game this week across his four performances. Poor efficiency in the last two games of the week dragged his overall field goal percentage down to just 42% for the week and 28.6% from three. However, in the first two games of the week, those percentages were 52.1% from the field and 35% from three. Those first two performances came in back-to-back games where Sharpe eclipsed 30 points, including a career-high 36 points in the win over Toronto.

Outside of his scoring, Sharpe showcased other parts of his game with his rebounding and assist numbers both well above his season averages of 4.8 and 2.7 respectively. Sharpe recorded his third and fourth career double-doubles with his rebounding this week and had three games with at least five assists.

Sharpe still leaves a lot to be desired on the defensive side of the ball, but he has shown stretches of being a more engaged defender. He grabbed 1.5 steals per game this week and contributed on the defensive end occasionally instead of looking lost.

This week’s honorable mention is Matisse Thybulle.

Thybulle deserves a lot of credit for how much success he has had despite not playing until the middle of March. This week may not have been his best since returning, but he still averaged a very solid 6.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game while shooting 41.7% from behind the arc. However, it is his defense that has been truly amazing. He averaged 2.5 steals per game this week, including a five-steal performance against the Hawks. His abilities on the defensive end were incredibly important during Portland’s wins over the stretch and his ability to work alongside Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija makes the Blazers a force to be reckoned with on the defensive end.

Let us know in the comments which Blazers players stood out most to you!