Miami Heat forward LeBron James and Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul have been named the players of the week for contests through Dec. 23.
James earned top player honors in the Eastern Conference for the 40th time in his career by averaging 25.3 points, 8.0 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 1.67 blocks per game as Miami went 3-0 last week.
In addition, the 10th-year pro shot 54.5 percent from beyond the arc and extended his double-digit point-scoring streak to 443 games -- including a new franchise record of 165 straight in Miami.
Paul helped the Clippers continue to steal the spotlight from the Lakers in the early going, leading the Western Conference with 11.3 assists per game to go with 16.3 point and 3.5 steals per contest during an unblemished week.
The Wake Forest product became the third-youngest player in league history to reach 5,000 assists in a 93-77 win over New Orleans on Dec. 19.
Other nominees for the Eastern and Western Conference players of the week were James Harden of the Houston Rockets; Lakers guard Kobe Bryant; Carmelo Anthony of the Knicks and Jose Calderon from Toronto.
