By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
It’s been a hell of a week in the series between Barcelona and Zenit, with Kevin Pangos and Brandon Davies sharing the MVP award for their individual performances in Game 1 and Game 2.
Per EuroLeague:
The only Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs series that is tied after two games produced co-MVPs of the Week as Kevin Pangos of Zenit St Petersburg and Brandon Davies of FC Barcelona shared performance index ratings of 33 in their teams’ respective victories.
Zenit struck first, taking Game 1 by 74-76 on Wednesday as Pangos scored game-high 19 points, making all 3 of his two-point attempts while knocking down 4 of 6 three-pointers. The Zenit playmaker also dished a personal playoffs high of 9 assists to go with 3 rebounds and 7 fouls drawn. Davies returned the favor by leading Barcelona to an 81-78 overtime win in Game 2 between them. He had team highs of 22 points and 8 rebounds while his 12 free throws made tied the high in any playoffs game since 2012.
Following the co-MVPs this week was D.J. Seeley of FC Bayern Munich, whose 23 points on 5-for-5 three-point shooting, 6 rebounds and 2 steals fueled a career-best PIR of 32 in his team’s Game 1 loss at AX Armani Exchange Milan. That game’s last-second hero, Zach LaDay of Milan, not only gave his team a 79-78 win, but collected 17 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal for a PIR of 29. Last on this week’s list of best playoffs performers are Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul teammates Nando De Colo and Marko Guduric, with identical 27 PIRs in Game 1 and Game 2, respectively, although their team could win neither against CKSA Moscow. De Colo collected 27 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals in Game 1. Guduric had the same 27 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds and 9 fouls drawn in Game 2.
Individual highs: Nando De Colo and Marko Guduric, Fenerbahce, 27 points
De Colo and Guduric led all scorers in the opening week of the playoffs with 27 points in the above-mentioned games. The playoffs scoring leader after two games is Pangos, with an average of 21.0 points. Johannes Voigtmann of CSKA had 10 rebounds in Game 1, the most of any players this week. Davies leads in the playoffs so far with 8.5 per game. Real Madrid point guard Nicolas Laprovittola recorded 10 assists in his team’s Game 2 loss to Anadolu Efes Istanbul, more than any other player this week. He also tops the playoffs list with an average of 7.0 assists. Alex Poythress of Zenit joined De Colo and Guduric with 3 steals each in Game 1, the same as Pangos and Real’s Rudy Fernandez of Real had in Game 2. CSKA teammates Daniel Hackett and Nikita Kurbanov averaged 2.0 steals each through the first two games. Tarik Black of Zenit had 3 blocks in his team’s Game 2 loss at Barcelona to lead the week. He joins Michael Eric of CSKA and Jalen Reynolds of Bayern with playoffs-high averages of 1.5 so far.