By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
Nick Calathes gets a triple-double and you think, “It took him a while.” Shane Larkin scores 49 points and you think he might do it again at some point. There are some players from whom you expect everything. There are some others who haven’t made you used to these kinds of performances. But they will be there if and when their teams need them.
Eurohoops presents five unexpected heroes in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague upon the completion of the first phase of the regular season.
LIVIO JEAN-CHARLES
LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne | Forward | November 8, 1993 | France
8.8 pts | 3.6 reb | 0.8 ast | 0.4 stl | 0.7 blk | 0.9 tov | 20:31 min | 8.9 PIR
Before the trip to Belgrade, Livio Jean-Charles had only one other 20-point performance, but Valencia Basket (81-72, Round 6) hadn’t let him enjoy it. Could he repeat something like that and soon? To the surprise of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, the answer to that question was immediate: just two rounds later.
And this time it wasn’t just the 20 points, including 2 of 2 clutch free throws from his own offensive rebound 15.8 seconds before the end to make the final 65-65 in regulation time. It was also that they were combined with the win (72-74 OT), his team’s sole road win in seven games, which helped keep LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne within the playoffs zone.
ROUND 8 @ CRVENA ZVEZDA MTS BELGRADE 72-74 OT
20 pts | 6/8 FG | 3 reb | 1 stl | 3 blk | 26:18 min | 28 PIR
LOUIS LABEYRIE
Valencia Basket | Forward | February 11, 1992 | France
5.3 pts | 4.7 reb | 0.9 ast | 0.4 stl | 0.3 blk | 0.6 tov | 20:02 min | 9.2 PIR
Louis Labeyrie has experience on the biggest stages of European and world basketball but, despite that, this is his first season in the EuroLeague. Just like his team, it took him a while to get going. At least he did it at a time when the need was greater than ever in this first phase of the regular season.
Zvezda in Serbia and Real Madrid in Spain, in that order, had put an abrupt end to Valencia‘s streak of three consecutive wins and Zalgiris Kaunas were threatening in Lithuania with yet another defeat. He didn’t let them carry out that threat. In his only performance scoring double digits, he helped his team assert that their ascendance would continue.
ROUND 13 @ ZALGIRIS KAUNAS 82-86
22 pts | 9/11 FG | 5 reb | 1 ast | 2 tov | 27:17 min | 22 PIR
ANDREW ALBICY
Zenit St Petersburg | Guard | March 21, 1990 | France
5.3 pts | 1.4 reb | 2.6 ast | 0.7 stl | 0.1 blk | 1.5 tov | 20:22 min | 5.8 PIR
Andrew Albicy is one of those multi-tool players for Zenit St Petersburg, but not one who will carry the weight on offense, much less in critical moments. Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul would prefer if this were always 100% true.
With only one performance scoring double digits up to that point and only 25% accuracy from behind the three-point line before the jump ball in Istanbul, he found himself scoring 12 points on 4-for-6 three-point shooting, including the one that won the game at the finish.
ROUND 15 @ FENERBAHCE BEKO ISTANBUL 81-84
12 pts | 4/7 FG | 1 reb | 3 ast | 1 stl | 3 tov | 23:08 min | 10 PIR
LUKAS LEKAVICIUS
Zalgiris Kaunas | Guard | March 30, 1994 | Lithuania
9.5 pts | 1.4 reb | 2.6 ast | 0.6 stl | 0.1 blk | 1.6 tov | 18:59 min | 9.2 PIR
Lukas Lekavicius is not inexperienced in the EuroLeague, nor is he a player that Zalgiris does not really count on, if there is such a player. Besides, before the game of Round 17 he had scored double digits another six times. But, honestly, how many times do you remember him stepping up in such a way in the past and during such a difficult time for his team?
In the second-most productive performance of his career in the competition, he contributed hugely to the comeback from a 15-point deficit over Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv (73-68) in Kaunas and in Zalgiris’s first winning streak this season.
ROUND 17 vs. MACCABI FOX TEL AVIV 73-68
23 pts | 7/11 FG | 2 ast | 2 stl | 2 tov | 22:29 min | 20 PIR
KONSTANTINOS MITOGLOU
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens | Forward | June 11, 1996 | Greece
5.6 pts | 4.4 reb | 0.3 ast | 0.7 stl | 0.3 blk | 0.5 tov | 13:49 min | 7.6 PIR
Before the jump ball against CSKA Moscow in Kaliningrad, Konstantinos Mitoglou had been in the starting lineup only once in the previous 16 rounds of the first phase. With Panathinaikos OPAP Athens coming off back-to-back losses and that game being one of the most crucial – until the next one – in the battle for the playoffs, the opportunity was one he couldn’t let pass him by. And he seized it.
One career high followed the other, now he also has the highest single-game rebounds total among Panathinaikos players ever. They got the win (102-106 OT) and what follows is expected with great interest.
ROUND 17 @ CSKA MOSCOW 102-106 OT
25 pts | 11/16 FG | 16 reb | 2 ast | 2 stl | 4 tov | 40:35 min | 34 PIR