MINNEAPOLIS – The NBA announced today that Timberwolves center Nikola Pekovic finished third in the voting for this season's Most Improved Player award, behind Orlando's Ryan Anderson and Milwaukee's Ersan Ilyasova.
Anderson finished with 260 points in the voting, Ilyasova with 159 and Pekovic with 104. Pekovic received 10 first-place votes, 15 second-place votes and nine third-place votes.
In his second year in the league, Pekovic more than doubled his average points and rebounds per game, improving from 5.5 points and 3.0 rebounds last season to 13.9 and 7.4, respectively. After winning the starting center job in February, Pekovic became the team's second-leading scorer and rebounder behind Kevin Love. He also managed to avoid the foul trouble that marked his rookie season, reducing his personal fouls from 181 to 98. That's a drop from one foul every 4.9 minutes to one every 12.9 minutes.
Love, who won the award in 2011, received one first-place and three third-place votes this year.
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