By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Nikola Mirotic paced Barcelona to a narrow victory over Valencia on the road on Wednesday and earned the MVP honors for Turkish Airlines Round 23.
Per euroleague.net:
Nikola Mirotic ruled in FC Barcelona’s thrilling come-from-behind 76-77 road win at Valencia Basket on Wednesday night, and in the process earned MVP of the Round honors. Mirotic made a game-winning basket with 3.4 seconds left, capping a 15-point fourth-quarter rally. Mirotic finished with 26 points, matching the third-highest total of his career. He made 5 of 6 two-pointers, 3 of 6 triples and 7 of 8 free throws. He also had 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 8 fouls drawn for a performance index rating of 32, the highest of all players in Round 23. It resulted in Mirotic’s second MVP of the Round honor this season.
The next best PIR was 28 by Kevin Punter of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, which rallied late to down Panathinaikos OPAP Athens 78-73. Punter scored 24 points with 2 steals and 8 fouls drawn. Sergio Rodriguez of AX Armani Exchange Milan was next on the list of top performers for the round with 13 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals for an index rating of 25 in a loss against ALBA Berlin. Anadolu Efes Istanbul playmaker Vasilije Micic had a PIR of 24 after posting 19 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals in a road win at CSKA Moscow. Rounding out the list of Round 23’s top performers was Olympiacos Piraeus center Nikola Milutinov, who had 8 points plus 13 rebounds and a PIR of 23 in a road loss in Kaunas.
Individual leaders: Tonye Jekiri of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, 4 steals
Mirotic was also Round 23’s best scorer with his 26 points against Valencia. Mirotic raised his scoring average to 18.8 points per game, which is fourth in the league. Efes star Shane Larkin is the leading scorer for the season with 21.8 points per game. Bojan Dubljevic of Valencia Basket and Olympiacos‘s Milutinov shared the honor of top rebounder for the round with 13 boards each. Milutinov leads the league this season with 8.3 rebounds per game and Dubljevic is third with 7.3. Facundo Campazzo of Real Madrid was the round’s leading assist man with 11 dishes in his team’s victory over KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. With 6.8 assists per game, Camapzzo is second this season to only Nick Calathes of Panathinaikos and his 9.4 assists per game. LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne center Tonye Jekiri collected 4 steals in his team’s win against FC Bayern Munich to lead the Round 23 charts. Injured Baskonia playmaker Pierria Henry remains the league leader in steals with 1.8 per game. Six players shared the lead for the round with 2 blocks each. Among them was Real’s Walter Tavares, who leads the league with 2.2 rejections per game this season. Five players registered double-doubles in Round 23. They were: Milutinov, Dubljevic (14 points, 13 rebounds), Campazzo (10 points, 11 assists), Dinos Mitoglou of Panathinaikos (10 points, 10 rebounds) and Alexey Shved of Khimki Moscow Region (18 points, 10 assists).