By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague action Tuesday through Friday produced a couple of MVP performances with Achille Polonara and Jordan Mickey earning the nod, Euroleague Basketball announced Saturday.
Achille Polonara, 29, posted a 22-point, 11-rebound double-double alongside four assists and three steals in Tuesday’s win on the road for TD Systems Baskonia over Panathinaikos OPAP.
Mickey, 26, finished with 28 points, nine rebounds, three assists, and one steal in a rare victory for Khimki Moscow Region edging LDLC ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne Wednesday.
A week-high 36 PIR registered by both players earned them the award.
Per the press release: “The final double-round week of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season saw two players, Jordan Mickey of Khimki Moscow Region and Achille Polonara of TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, finish as weekly co-MVPs, both earning that honor for the first time in their respective careers. Mickey and Polonara set new career highs with performance index ratings of 36 each, the best among players on winning teams in Round 32 and Round 33. Polonara paced Baskonia’s 82-97 road win at Panathinaikos in Round 32 with 22 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. He made 3 of 5 two-point shots and knocked down a career-best 5 three-pointers on 6 attempts. Mickey played 44 minutes in Khimki’s 87-85 overtime win over LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, also in Round 32. He scored 28 points on 9-for-15 two-point shooting to go with 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and 9 fouls drawn. The highest PIR of the week belonged to ASVEL’s Guerschon Yabusele, who had a PIR of 37 in that overtime loss to Khimki. Yabusele collected 24 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and drew 10 fouls. Another Baskonia player, Rokas Giedraitis, earned his place among this week’s top performers in the same Round 32 win over Panathinaikos. Giedraitis posted a career-high PIR of 35 by collecting 25 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Rounding out the list of best performances of the week was Nikola Mirotic of FC Barcelona, who had a PIR of 34 in his team’s Round 32 overtime road loss against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. Mirotic had 23 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks in that game.
Individual highs: Alexey Shved, Khimki, 32 points
Alex Shved was this week’s top single-game scorer with 32 points in Khimki’s Round 32 win over ASVEL. Shved is the new, season-long EuroLeague scoring leader with 19.8 points per game. Three players had 11 rebounds this week; Polonara in Round 32 plus the Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade duo of Landry Nnoko and Marko Simonovic, who set their career highs with 11 each in Round 33. Nikola Milutinov of CSKA Moscow is the season-long rebounding leader with 8.6 per game. In Round 32, Olympiacos point guard Kostas Sloukas dished 11 assists, more than any other player this week. Shved leads the EuroLeague in assists with 7.7 per game. Mickey had 6 steals for Khimki in a Round 33 loss to CSKA Moscow to lead all players this week. Baskonia playmaker Pierria Henry continues to lead the steals charts with 1.7 per game. Maccabi forward Dragan Bender had 4 blocks in Round 32 and Efes center Sertac Sani matched that total in Round 33. Walter Tavares of Real Madrid is the top shot blocker this season, averaging 1.7 blocks. There were five double-doubles this week. In Round 32, they were Polonara, Yabusele, Mirotic and Baskonia’s Henry, who had 11 points and 10 assists, while Nnoko had 10 and 11 rebounds in Round 33.”