By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Sasha Vezenkov stood out with a 20-point performance for Olympiacos against Khimki in the final game of the EuroLeague regular season and lands this week’s MVP honors.
Per EuroLeague:
A winning effort in his team’s final game of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Regular Season allowed Sasha Vezenkov of Olympiacos Piraeus to earn his second MVP of the Week honor in the last month. Vezenkov led Olympiacos to an 82-75 victory with a performance index rating of 31, his second-best mark in 150 career EuroLeague games. He only had a higher PIR last month against ALBA Berlin in Round 30 , when he won his first weekly MVP honor.
Vezenkov finished Friday’s game with 20 points on 6-for-8 two-point shooting and 11 rebounds – including a career-high 9 defensive boards – plus an assist, a steal, and 4 fouls drawn.
Iffe Lundberg of CSKA Moscow led his team to an 88-70 home victory against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne with a PIR of 30, this week’s second-best total. Appearing in only his ninth game in the competition, Lundberg came off the bench to score 23 points, making 5 of 7 two-point shots and 3 of 5 three-pointers. He also had 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Nicolas Laprovittola of Real Madrid and Thomas Walkup of Zalgiris Kaunas had PIRs of 29 this week. Laprovittola paced Real to a playoff-clinching road win at Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, collecting 18 points, a career-high 10 assists, 4 assists and 2 steals. Walkup had 18 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in his team’s final game of the season, a home win over Panathinaikos OPAP Athens. Rounding out the list of week’s top performers were Fenerbahce‘s Nando De Colo and CSKA‘s Michael Eric, each with a PIR of 27. De Colo had 23 points and 5 assists, while Eric collected 21 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals.
Individual highs: Jordan Mickey, Khimki, 5 blocks
Jalen Reynolds of FC Bayern Munich led all scorers this week with 26 points in his team’s road win against FC Barcelona. Khimki Moscow Region guard Alexey Shved is the overall EuroLeague scoring leader with 19.8 points per game. Vezenkov and Landry Nnoko of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade each pulled down 11 rebounds, more than any player this week. CSKA’s Nikola Milutinov is the rebounds leader with 8.6 per game. Laprovittola and Sergio Rodriguez of Milan each had 10 assists to lead the weekly standings. Shved leads the league averaging 7.7 assists. Three players had 4 steals this week: Mateusz Ponitka of Zenit St Petersburgh, Johannes Thiemann of ALBA Berlin, and Derrick Williams of Valencia Basket. Pierria Henry of TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz leads the steals charts with 1.7 per game. Jordan Mickey of Khimki Moscow Region had a career-high 5 blocks in a rescheduled Round 24 game against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. Real’s Walter Tavares is the league leader with 1.7 blocks per game. Vezenkov and Laprovittola were the only players to register a double-double this week.
Photo: EuroLeague