By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Nikola Mirotic is the Regular Season Round 10 MVP, EuroLeague announced on Saturday. He earned his first nod of the season and fourth overall with his season-best 35 PIR, the highest among all players. The 28-year-old forward made 9/14 from the field including three shots beyond the arc, grabbed 14 rebounds and dished three assists for FC Barcelona in the home win against Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv.
Per EuroLeague: “FC Barcelona remained tied atop of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings after its latest win came behind a stellar performance of Nikola Mirotic, who earned the MVP honor for Round 10. In Barcelona’s huge 96-73 win over the visiting Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, Mirotic had one of the finest games of his career. He scored a season-high 25 points, making 6 of 9 two-point shots and 3 of 5 triples, while pulling down a career-high 14 rebounds. Mirotic also had 3 assists and 1 steal for a performance index rating 35, tied for the second-highest of his career. This is Mirotic’s first MVP of the Round honor this season and fourth of his career. Two players – Gabriel Deck of Real Madrid and Stefan Jovic of Khimki Moscow Region – set their respective career highs with PIRs of 33 in this round. Deck shined in Real’s home win over CSKA Moscow, with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists – all career highs. Jovic matched his career high in scoring with 19 points to go with 11 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals. Rounding out the list of Round 10 top performers are Valencia Basket’s Bojan Dubljevic and Paul Zipser of FC Bayern Munich, with PIRs of 29 each. Dubljevic led Valencia Basket to an 89-84 home win against Khimki by collecting 18 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block and 7 fouls drawn. Zipser posted 23 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block in a home loss against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens.
Individual highs: Greg Monroe, Bayern, 4 steals
Mirotic was the top scorer in Round 10 with 25 points. Nando De Colo of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul leads the scoring charts this season with 20.9 points per game. Mirotic also led all player with 14 rebounds this round. Tonye Jekiri of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne remains league’s rebounding leader with 10.0 rebounds per night. Two point guards had 11 assists in Round 10: Khimki’s Jovic and Quino Colom of Valencia. Nick Calathes of Panathinaikos sits atop the leaders this season, averaging 9.1 assists. Bayern center Greg Monroe had 4 steals, more than any other player this round. Two players – Vasilije Micic of Anadolu Efes Istanbul and Facundo Campazzo of Real – share the season lead with 1.8 steals per game. Jeff Brooks of AX Armani Exchange Milan and Derrick Williams of Fenerbahce each had 4 blocked shots in Round 10. Real’s Walter Tavares remains as the shot-blocking leader with 1.9 blocks on average. There were seven double-doubles this round, and four came from the same game. Valencia’s Mike Tobey had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and his teammate Colom finished with 12 points and 11 assists, while on the other end Jovic collected 19 points and 11 assists, while Devin Booker had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Other double-doubles belonged to MVP Mirotic (25 points, 14 rebounds), Deck (17 points, 11 rebounds) and Tibor Pleiss of Efes (14 points, 12 rebounds.)”