Euroleague MVP of Round 5: Will Clyburn, CSKA Moscow

Forward Will Clyburn stepped up and led CSKA Moscow to a come-from-behind 88-82 win over visiting Olympiacos Piraeus on Friday to pick up the team’s third MVP of the Round honor already this season. Clyburn scored 29 points, the second-highest total of his 145-game Turkish Airlines EuroLeague career and the most he ever scored in a regular-season game. Clyburn made 6 of 8 two-point shots, 3 of 8 threes and all 8 of his free throws. He also collected a team-high 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and drew 7 fouls for a performance index rating of 32, the highest among players on winning teams in Round 5. This is the third MVP of the Round honor in six EuroLeague seasons for Clyburn, whose injured teammate Tornike Shengelia earned a pair earlier in this one. The highest PIR of Round 5 came in the same game and belonged to Olympiacos guard Tyler Dorsey, who had a performance index rating of 34. Dorsey scored a career-high 32 points, netting 7 of 10 three-point shots in the process. He also had 4 rebounds and 2 assists in the loss against CSKA. Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz forward Simone Fontecchio posted a PIR of 30 in his team’s 78-66 win over visiting AS Monaco. Fontecchio scored 20 points, missing just one shot all night, and also collected 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Nikola Mirotic had a PIR 28 in FC Barcelona’s 84-58 win over Zenit St Petersburg. Mirotic scored 20 points, had 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist and 3 fouls drawn while playing less than 16 minutes. Wrapping up the round’s top performers was James Nunnally who paced Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv to a 77-73 win over Panathinaikos OPAP Athens with a game-high 18 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists for a PIR of 25.

Dorsey’s 32 points led all Round 5 scorers and were just one short of this season’s EuroLeague high. CSKA’s Shengelia tops the scoring charts with 21.0 per game. Real Madrid center Vincent Poirier had 17 rebounds, the club’s single-game record and the most pulled down by any player this season. Luke Sikma of ALBA Berlin is the overall rebounding leader with 8.4 per game. Five players recorded 6 assists in Round 5: Nando De Colo of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, Monaco’s Leo Westermann, Thomas Walkup of Olympiacos, Mantas Kalnietis of Zalgiris Kaunas and Jayson Granger of Baskonia. Granger leads all passers with 5.4 per game. Five more players had 3 steals in this round: Vladimir Lucic of FC Bayern Munich, Chris Singleton of Anadolu Efes Istanbul, Howard Sant-Roos of Panathinaikos, Jordan Loyd of Zenit and Chris Jones of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. Monaco’s Mike James and Lorenzo Brown of UNICS Kazan are co-leaders in steals after Round 5 with 2.0 per game. Also, there were five players with 2 blocks in Round 5: Livio Jean-Charles of Olympiacos, Austin Hollins of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, ALBA’s Louis Olinde, Monaco’s Ibrahima Faye and Josh Nebo of Zalgiris. Real’s Walter Tavares is the leading shot-blocker with 2.0 per game.