By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Mike James was named Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 15 MVP, EuroLeague announced on Saturday. Coming off Round 14 MVP honors, the 29-year-old American guard guided CSKA Moscow to the road win against Anadolu Efes with 28 points behind 10/12 from the field. His 36 PIR was the highest among all players on Thursday and Friday.
Per EuroLeague:
“Mike James of CSKA Moscow earned the MVP of the Round honor for the second time in 48 hours, this time for his performance in a thrilling 80-81 road win over Anadolu Efes Istanbul on Friday night. In a rematch of last season’s Championship Game, James shined by scoring 10 of his 28 points in the final five minutes, including a game-winning jumper with 17 seconds to go. That concluded a near-perfect shooting night, as James made 5-of-5 two-pointers and 5-of-7 triples. He also led CSKA with 6 rebounds and added 4 assists and 5 fouls drawn, accumulating a performance index rating of 36. It is the fourth MVP honor for James this season, and the sixth of his career. James is only the third player in the EuroLeague to win two MVP of the Round honors in the same week, after Luka Doncic in the 2017-18 season, and Alexey Shved last season. James is also the first player this season to earn back-to-back MVP of the Round honors. Nikola Milutinov of Olympiacos Piraeus had a PIR of 34, the second highest of Round 15, in a loss against Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. Milutinov had 15 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and drew 10 fouls. Zvezda’s Lorenzo Brown starred on the other end in that game, netting 34 points along with 4 assists, 3 rebounds and 9 fouls drawn for an index rating of 32. Jock Landale of Zalgiris Kaunas had a PIR of 30 after collecting 24 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in a loss against Khimki Moscow Region. Rounding out the list of top performers in Round 15 are Khimki’s Stefan Jovic and Mateusz Ponitka of Zenit St Petersburg, each with an index rating of 29. Jovic scored a career-high 25 points and had 3 rebounds and 2 steals, while Ponitka led Zenit with 16 points, a career-high 8 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals in a road upset over Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul.
Individual highs: Lorenzo Brown, Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, 34 points
Brown led all scorers this round with 34 points. Shved remains the leading scorer for the season, averaging 21.4 points. Milutinov had 11 rebounds, more than any player in Round 15. Milutinov improved his league-leading average to 9.3 rebounds per game. Adam Hanga of FC Barcelona led all passers with a career-high 10 assists. Nick Calathes of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens tops the league in assists with 8.7 per game. Tyler Dorsey of Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv led all players in Round 15 with 4 steals. Real Madrid’s Facundo Campazzo tops the steals chart this season with a 1.7 average. Maccabi’s Quincy Acy had 5 blocked shots, tying the season-high in this category. Real’s Walter Tavares remains league’s top shot-blocker with 1.8 blocks per game. There were three double-doubles in this round: Hanga had 10 points and 10 assists, Milutinov collected 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Kaleb Tarczewski of AX Armani Exchange Milan had 13 points plus 10 rebounds.”
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