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Kevin Love Wins First NBA Western Conference Player of the Week Award of the Season

The Timberwolves Forward takes home the first player of the week honor in his career after averaging 29.7 points and 14.7 rebounds in three games, all wins.

Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

The Timberwolves announced that Kevin Love is Western Conference Player of the Week for the week ending November 3rd.

Here is part of the press release:

Love has played a pivotal role for the Wolves as they improved to 3-0 for the second time in club history (2001-02), one of just four undefeated teams in the league. In the season opener on Wednesday, Love erupted for 31 points and 17 rebounds, including draining a game-tying three-pointer with 10.1 seconds left to force overtime. Two days later Love was at it again, finishing with 24 points on 7-for-12 shooting and grabbing 12 rebounds before sitting out the fourth quarter of Minnesota's 100-81 rout of Oklahoma City. He finished his week with a 34-point, 15-rebound performance in New York, his fourth straight 30+ point/15+ rebound performance against the Knicks and 20th of his career as the Wolves closed out a 109-100 win over New York. With the performance, Love joined Shaquille O'Neal as just the second player since 1985-86 to record four straight 30/15 games against one opponent.

This season Love leads the NBA in scoring (29.7 ppg) and ranks second in rebounds (14.7 rpg), free throws made (31) and attempted (39). He's also tied for first in double-doubles (3), increasing his total to 121 in his last 135 games. After grabbing two offensive rebounds in Sunday's win in New York, Love extended his streak of consecutive games with an offensive rebound to 78, the longest active streak in the NBA.

Love is playing absolutely spectacular basketball at the moment. His ability to score from everywhere is this year being combined with some impressive play making to make him an absolute offensive force. In addition to his scoring, he has a 19.6% assist percentage against an 8.2% turnover percentage. We're finally seeing consistent use of the fabled outlet pass, and he's putting opponents in foul trouble in the blink of an eye.

It's fun to have our superstar back and playing even better. It's also fun to see him get a little national recognition. Hopefully this is the first of many Player of the Week awards for Love in a Timberwolves uniform.

Philadelphia 76ers rookie Michael Carter-Williams was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week.