In less than two full months with the Pacers, Victor Oladipo has emerged as a star. Across the NBA, people are starting to take notice of the Pacers' leading scorer.
Oladipo picked up another accolade when the NBA announced Monday that he is the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for Week 8 (games played Dec. 4-10). It is already the second time Oladipo has won Player of the Week honors this season, the only Eastern Conference player to win the award twice this season. He also earned the accolade on Oct. 30.
The fifth-year guard led the Pacers to four straight wins last week, averaging 30.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.8 steals. Oladipo shot 51.2 percent from the field and 47.5 from 3-point range over the four games.
PHOTO GALLERY: Oladipo's Week That Was »
The Pacers opened the week with a blowout win over the Knicks on Monday, Dec. 4. Oladipo didn't have do too much in that one, but still managed to tally 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, five rebounds, four assists, and two blocks in a 115-97 win.
Oladipo's heroics began in earnest on Wednesday, when he hit the game-winning 3-pointer with with 31.1 seconds remaining to lift Indiana to a 98-96 win over the Bulls. Chicago had led the entire evening up until that point, but Oladipo came up with a steal and raced down the court, electing to pull up for the game-winner.
"I was surveying the scene at first, just seeing who was back, how many people were back and nobody stopped me," Oladipo said after the game. "I could have kept going and drove into the defense or pull up for the three, shoot the ball with confidence, and that's what I did."
Oladipo led all scorers with 27 points on 10-of-20 shooting (4-of-10 from 3-point range) and pulled down eight rebounds.
On Friday, Oladipo outdueled LeBron James as the Pacers' snapped Cleveland's 13-game winning streak. Oladipo had 33 points on 11-of-24 shooting (6-of-13 from beyond the arc), eight rebounds, and five assists in the 106-102 win. His six 3-pointers matched his career high, the final one a pull-up dagger with 1:01 remaining.
But Oladipo's best performance of the week came on Sunday, when he dropped a career-high 47 points in a 126-116 overtime win over Denver. Oladipo scored 32 points after halftime and finished the night 15-for-28 from the field, 6-for-12 from 3-point range, and 11-for-13 from the free throw line. He also had seven rebounds, six assists, and two steals in the victory.
"Y'all might be surprised, but I put in the work," Oladipo said after the win about his string of memorable performances. "I work every day. I have no limit to how hard I work. I'm trying to be great. There's no in between and I can't settle for anything less."
The performance was so great that the Bankers Life Fieldhouse crowd serenaded Oladipo with chants of "M-V-P" as the final seconds ticked away.
"That was incredible," Oladipo said. "You dream about stuff like that, but I've got a lot of work to do in order to get there."
Oladipo has already scored 20 or more points in 19 of 26 games this season. He only accomplished that feat 18 times in 67 games last season with the Thunder. His scoring average of 24.5 points per game currently ranks 10th in the NBA.
Oladipo is the 12th player in franchise history to earn Player of the Week honors. Pacers players have won the award a total of 21 times. Paul George, the player traded to Oklahoma City in exchange for Oladipo and Sabonis, was the last Pacers player to earn the accolade, doing so five times (the last being April 9, 2017).
As fate may have it, the next game for Oladipo and the Pacers is against George and the Thunder on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 7:00 PM ET.
Oladipo shares this week's honors with Golden State forward Kevin Durant, who was named Western Conference Player of the Week.