By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Vladimir Lucic was outstanding in EuroLeague’s first double-round week this season as he led Bayern Munich to two wins and he earned the MVP honors along the way.
Lucic had career highs of 26 points and 29 PIR against Maccabi Tel Aviv and 18 points in the huge comeback against Fenerbahce BEKO.
Per Euroleague Basketball:
Veteran forward Vladimir Lucic has earned the MVP of the Week honor for his outsized role in leading FC Bayern Munich to a pair of monumental road wins in the first double-round of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season. Lucic was the high scorer for Bayern in both games, and his combined 53 performance index rating topped all players who won two games this week. First, Lucic had career highs of 26 points and 29 PIR as Bayern upset host Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 82-85 in Round 3 on Wednesday. Just 48 hours later, he sealed a 21-point comeback at the foul line and finished with 18 points as Bayern stunned Fenerbahce Beko 71-75 in Istanbul. This marks the first MVP honor for Lucic in his eight-season EuroLeague career. The highest combined PIR in games this week, 57, belonged to Sergio Rodriguez of AX Armani Exchange Milan. Rodriguez had 18 points and a PIR of 20 in a 86-75 loss to Olympiacos Piraeus on Wednesday, then shined with 25 points and 7 assists for a PIR of 37 in Milan’s come-from-behind 78-70 win over Real Madrid on Friday. The next three top performers this week played on teams who suffered two losses each. Vyacheslav Zaytsev of Khimki Moscow Region had a career-best PIR of 26 in each loss, setting career-highs with 21 points and 9 assists against Real on Wednesday, then collecting 17 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds vs. TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz on Friday. Fenerbahce’s Jan Vesely had a PIR of 18 in a Round 3 overtime loss against CSKA Moscow, then collected 25 points plus 8 rebounds for a 33 PIR against Bayern, for a total PIR of 51 for the week. Topping off the best five performers is Maccabi guard Scottie Wilbekin with a combined PIR of 49 after scoring 25 points and dishing 9 assists for a PIR of 30 against Bayern, and then scoring 18 points for a PIR of 19 against Olympiacos on Friday.
Individual highs: Vasilije Micic, Efes, 13 assists
The week’s top single-game scoring performances came from Scottie Wilbekin in Round 3 and Mike James in Round 4, each netting 27 points. Jordan Loyd of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade leads the scoring charts after four games with an average of 21.3 points. Khimki’s Devin Booker and Panathinaikos OPAP Athens big man Konstantinos Mitoglou had the week’s best rebounding performances, pulling down 12 boards each in Round 4. Jonas Jerebko of Khimki is the overall leader with 9.8 boards per game. Anadolu Efes Istanbul point guard Vasilije Micic’s 13 assists in Round 3 were the most of any player this week. Micic and Zaytsev are overall co-leaders in assists with 6.5 on average. Three players – Baskonia forwards Achille Polonara and Rokas Giedraitis; Bayern guard Wade Baldwin IV – had 4 steals in Round 4, the most this week. Baldwin tops the steals chart with 2.8 steals per game this season. CSKA center Joel Bolomboy had a season-high 4 blocks in Round 4, more than anyone this week. Georgios Papagiannis of Panathinaikos is the season leader with 2.0 blocks per game.