By Stefan Djordjevic / info@eurohoops.net
It wasn’t often this season that EuroLeague games could be played out without major setbacks caused by the coronavirus in various shapes and forms, however, Round 7 was one of those as all teams saw action across nine matches.
That means lots of action and lots of great performances, both team and individual, but one stands atop it all.
MVP: Rodrigue Beaubois
Anadolu Efes couldn’t count on Bryant Dunston and Shane Larkin for their clash against Maccabi Tel Aviv but two players stepped up in their absence. It was Tibor Pleiss and Rodrigue Beaubois who led the Turkish team to victory and especially the latter.
The French guard logged a career-high 36 PIR by scoring 23 points on 8-10 shooting, dishing seven assists, grabbing two rebounds, stealing the ball three times and giving out two blocks.
Two of those points came in form of a game-winning driving layup over two opponents and one of those blocks came in the final seconds to stop Scottie Wilbekin’s attempt to ruin everything for Beaubois and Efes.
Best Five
- Rodrigue Beaubois: Oh la la!
- Will Clyburn: The American forward led CSKA to a road win over Panathinaikos with 15 and seven rebounds along with some important defensive tasks. He also reached a milestone of 1,500 scored points in EuroLeague.
- Nikola Mirotic: Another strong performance for Mirotic, this time in Barca’s convincing win against Alba Berlin. He banked all eight of his two-pointers for 18 points while also grabbing five rebounds on his way to 25 PIR.
- Moustapha Fall: Baskonia has Fallen (pun intended) to ASVEL and the big guy was the main reason for it. He put on 19 points on 8-9 shooting, five rebounds, two assists, one block and put lots of pressure on the opposing defenders to get them into foul trouble. And let’s not forget all the huge screens and rotations to create huge spacing.
- Walter Tavares: Real Madrid‘s center scored career-high 22 points on his way to career-high 34 PIR. He was perfect (9-9) from the field and added 12 rebounds as well as one assist.
Coach of the Week: Jaume Ponsarnau
Valencia had a tough duel ahead of them as they hosted Olimpia Milano which lost only one game since late August -and they played 21 of them up to this point across all competitions.
Additionally, the Spaniards were coming off two losses and couldn’t count on a few injured players including Vanja Marinkovic who hurt his shoulder at practice recently. However, none of that stopped coach Jaume Ponsarnau to make sure his squad was completely ready to fight for the win.
And that’s exactly what they did, handing the Italians one of the rare losses this season.
Leaving his heart and soul on the floor
Facundo Campazzo may not have made it to our top five but far from it that his effort wasn’t noticed.
The Argentinian guard played every single second after the halftime break and finished the game with 19 points on 5-8 from deep, ten assists, three boards and three steals.
If anybody got swayed by summer rumors that Campazzo wouldn’t be all in with Real Madrid due to the interest he’s been receiving from the NBA… forget about it. Facu has been playing out of his mind and tonight’s performance was perhaps the biggest proof of it.
A win for Bayern or a win for Partizan? Or both?
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s a win for Bayern but, of course, but it’s always interesting when a clash receives some underlining extra pressure, motivation and meaning, although it may not seem that way.
Andrea Trinchieri had his fair share of battles with Crvena Zvezda during his two years at the helm of Partizan and he had a chance to once again claim victory over the same rival. One of Bayern’s players in Vladimir Lucic is also a former member of Partizan.
Was it on their mind or not, they certainly delivered and there will without a doubt be some black-and-white fans grateful for it.