By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Shane Larkin was named Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 16 MVP, Euroleague Basketball announced Saturday.
Larkin, 29, went for 26 points with 9/14 field goals, six rebounds, six assists, two steals, and one block as Anadolu Efes earned the away win against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv on Thursday. The 37 PIR topped all players in action landing him the MVP of the Round honors for the 12th time in his career in Europe’s premier club continental competition.
CSKA Moscow’s Tornike Shengelia, Maccabi’s Scottie Wilbekin, and FC Barcelona’s Nikola Mirotic are up to two MVP of the Round awards just past the midway mark of the 2021-22 Regular Season. The remaining distinctions went to LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne’s Elie Okobo, Chris Jones, and William Howard, Barca’s Brandon Davies, CSKA’s Will Clyburn, Panathinaikos OPAP’s Daryl Macon Jr., UNICS Kazan’s Lorenzo Brown, Olympiacos’ Sasha Vezenkov, AS Monaco’s Mike James, and Efes’ Vasilije Micic.
Per the press release: “Shane Larkin was back to his unstoppable self on Thursday night, leading Anadolu Efes Istanbul to a big 78-92 road win over Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv to earn the MVP nod for Round 16. Larkin netted his 26 points and made 6 of 7 three-pointers – both his season highs – while also collecting 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 1 block and 5 fouls drawn. It all added up to a performance index rating of 37, the highest among all players in Round 16, good for the 12th MVP of the Round honor of his career. Behind him came Maodo Lo of ALBA Berlin, whose career highs of 26 points and 34 PIR were not enough to avoid a 90-93 home loss to CSKA Moscow. Round 16’s third-best PIR, 32, belonged to FC Barcelona forward Nikola Mirotic who collected 20 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 1 steal in an 82-85 road win over Panathinaikos OPAP Athens. The next-best performance came from Maccabi center Ante Zizic, who accumulated a 31 PIR in his team’s loss against Efes, scoring 23 points to go with 6 rebounds and 2 blocks. And the fifth-best performance of the round belonged to Nando De Colo, who posted a 26 PIR in leading Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul to a 75-53 win over Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz with 17 points, 7 assists and 6 steals.
Individual highs: Nando De Colo, Fenerbahce, 6 steals
Larkin and Lo led all scorers in Round 16 with 26 points. Mirotic is the new scoring leader with 17.2 points per game. The top rebounders of the round were Toko Shengelia of CSKA and Othello Hunter of FC Bayern Munich, with 10 each. The overall rebounding leader remains Georgios Papagiannis of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, who is averaging 8.1 boards. Lorenzo Brown of UNICS Kazan dished a career-high 10 assists, the most of Round 16. Nick Calathes of Barcelona remains the season leader with 5.7 assists per game. De Colo’s 6 steals were a career-high and tied for the most in any game this season. John Brown of UNICS remains the steals leader with 2.4 per game. Walter Tavares of Real Madrid and Johannes Voigtmann of CSKA led all Round 16 players with 3 blocked shots each. Tavares is the season leader with 1.8 blocks per game. Shengelia (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Hunter (11 and 10) had the only two double-doubles in Round 16.”
Below, the Top 10 Plays of Round 16 with Joel Bolomboy of CSKA dunking in style claiming first place.
Action resumes next week with Round 17 fixtures stretched Wednesday through Thursday.