By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
FC Barcelona had to fight hard in Monaco to keep their perfect streak alive and no one fought harder than big man Brandon Davies. Davies was effective in the paint against his former club, forcing overtime with a put-back basket with 2.7 seconds remaining in regulation.
He finished with 27 points, matching his career-high in the competition, along with 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 8 fouls drawn for a PIR of 38, one short of his career-high.
Per EuroLeague:
After a game-saving play that helped keep his team undefeated, FC Barcelona center Brandon Davies waltzed to Round 4’s MVP honor with a performance index rating of 38, the highest by any Turkish Airlines EuroLeague player so far this season. Davies matched career highs with 27 points and 6 offensive rebounds among his 10 total boards while dishing 4 assists on the night. He made 10 of 15 two-point shots, including the put-back of a teammate’s miss with 2.7 seconds left in regulation that pushed the game to overtime, where Barca defeated host AS Monaco 81-85.
After Davies came another center, Walter Tavares of Real Madrid, who didn’t miss a shot while scoring 17 points to go with 9 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks for a 31 PIR in his team’s 88-65 win over Panathinaikos OPAP Athens. Luke Sikma of ALBA Berlin followed with a 39 PIR based on 19 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in a 76-80 home loss to Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. Will Thomas of Monaco came next, his 28 PIR coming with 15 points and 9 rebounds in the overtime loss to Barca. And Alexey Shved’s 25 PIR helped CSKA Moscow get its third straight win despite serious injury woes, 78-76 over visiting Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. Shved had 16 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in the victory.
Individual highs: Jordan Loyd, 11 assists
With 27 points for Barca, Davies was also the top scorer of Round 4. Injured CSKA star Tornike Shengelia is the current overall scoring leader with 21.0 points per game. Round 4’s surprise top rebounder was another Barca star, point guard Nick Calathes, whose 11 rebounds were the second-highest total of his 256-game EuroLeague career. ALBA’s Sikma is the best on the boards so far this season at 8.8 rebounds per game. Jordan Loyd of Zenit St Petersburg dished a career-high 11 assists, 4 more than any other player in Round 4. Thomas Heurtel of Real Madrid averages 5.5 assists to lead that category. Devin Booker of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul made 4 steals, tops of the round, while Lorenzo Brown of UNICS Kazan averages a league-high 2.3. Two players, Joel Bolomboy of CSKA and Dyshawn Pierre of Fenerbahce, had 3 blocks each in Round 4. Tavares is the overall leader with 2.0 rejections per game.
Photo: EuroLeague