The Rebound All-Star organiser, content producer, YouTube host and producer, commentator and social media observer, had seven D1M games across the two days to sift through, noting down the top performances for making his Player and Team of the Week picks.
Have your say on this week's choices and give a shout-out to the players you think deserve one using the hashtag #NBL2324 and #ReboundTOTW. Don't forget to tag us!
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Chris will pick a Player of the Week and four other selections to round out his Team of the Week, paying attention to the following criteria:
Other players will also receive a shout out as honourable mentions at the bottom of the piece.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Malcolm Smith once again delivers in a big game for Derby Trailblazers to earn Rebound’s NBL Player Of The Week award.
The former NBL MVP used his experience to go to the line 17 times, knocking down all of them on the way to 31 point performance that included just 12 field goal attempts.
Smith exploited a known weakness in the Rebels’ armour. The former league leaders are a top-five rebounding side but are one of two teams in D1M without a player averaging more than seven boards a night.
By drawing numerous fouls, especially against four of the Rebels' top five rebounders, it impacted the Rebels’ defence and allowed the Trailblazers’ points tally to pass 100.
Justin Hedley is unlucky not to be the latest Player Of The Week following an impressive 31-point performance against Thames Valley, which included game-winning free throws along with a block on the final play, plus made back-to-back free throws to force overtime.
It was a heroic performance by one of the stars of this year’s D1M campaign, as Hedley led his team to a tough home win.
It was a big performance from sharp-shooting Juan Manning this weekend as the BA guard put on a shooting and playmaking masterclass that flirted with a double-double.
Abbey needed a big second half against Nottingham to cancel out a two-point deficit, Manning stood up with six points and three assists in the third as he directly contributed to all but three field goal attempts in the frame.
In addition, he added a further three points and three assists in the final quarter to help Barking to a 14-point win in their fight for D1M survival.
Derby took a huge step towards claiming the D1M regular-season title with a commanding road victory against Essex 🗞👇https://t.co/qA7a2vrVUO pic.twitter.com/h5rkyOsvvl
— NBL (@NBLengland) January 29, 2024
For the second week running Amarlie Wilkinson has impressed me. In BA's win over Nottingham, Wilkinson contributed heavily on the defensive end with four direct stops in the fourth quarter alone. That contribution, alongside a team effort elsewhere, contributed to Barking making 22 points from turnovers across the game.
Wilkinson led his team in +/- with +28, mainly due to being on the bench for the majority of a disappointing 21-32 first quarter, but after a shaky start the 17-year-old guard put in a mature defensive performance to help his team get a very valuable dub and earn his spot on the court for the majority of the remaining three quarters.
This isn't a sentimental pick for a star, who recently announced he was swapping our NBL for the one down under.
Swalve put in a perfect final performance for Storm in their 39 point win against Newcastle with a game-high +/- of +41 to go with an efficient 26 point, 10 assist double-double performance.
In a sucker-punch fourth quarter, Storm posted a strong 17-0 run, with Swalve contributing eight points, one board and two assists to push his side's advantage past the 40 point mark with two minutes left on the clock.
The NBL is back with a bang 💥#NBL2324 pic.twitter.com/sk2n3EU4dr
— NBL (@NBLengland) January 27, 2024
Barking fell to an 11 point deficit after the opening quarter against Nottingham, but they tightened up on the defensive end with the likes of Sam Akano, Ethan Conway and Amarlie Wilkinson posting multiple stops.
As a team Barking also protected the rock better across the contest, limiting Nottingham to just six steals and six fewer points from turnovers.
Once Barking clawed back their early deficit, their offense went into full flow and the hosts finished the game with an NBA-like team-shooting stat line of 54/41/81, with the bench adding 25 points.
Hafeez Abdul (WOR) - 37P/6R/34EFF @LON & 19P/8R/4A/3S/16EFF vs NEW
Victor Ndoukou (LOU) - 26P/2R/2A/3S/31EFF
Ronald Blain (BRA) - 22P/11R/2S/3B/26EFF
Logan Rooney (NEW) - 21P/3R/13EFF @HEM & 29P/10R/4A/3S/30EFF @WOR
Brayden Inger (HEM) - 24P/12R/30EFF
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Main image credit - Ben Hunter
