Howard, Kidd are NBA players of the week

NEW YORK, April 6 (UPI) -- Orlando's Dwight Howard and Dallas's Jason Kidd were selected the NBA players of the week, the league announced Monday.

Howard, for the second consecutive week, was the player of the week for the Eastern Conference while Kidd took the Western Conference award for games played March 30-April 5.

Howard averaged 23.7 points, 15.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks last week while the Magic was going 3-1. He had his ninth 20-point, 20-rebound game Saturday when he finished with 21 points and 23 rebounds against Atlanta. It is the fourth time this season Howard has been Eastern Conference player of the week.

Kidd had a season-high 20 assists Sunday, a feat that allowed him to pass Magic Johnson for third place on the NBA's career assist list. He has 10,148 assists in his career. Mark Jackson (10,334) is second on the list. He averaged 13.5 assists and 9.8 points over four games, three of which were Mavericks' wins, last week.

Other nominees for the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week were Denver's J.R. Smith, Cleveland's LeBron James, Indiana's Danny Granger, Memphis' Mike Conley and Rudy Gay, Miami's Dwyane Wade, Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge and Toronto's Chris Bosh.