Euroleague MVP of the Week: Joffrey Lauvergne, Zalgiris Kaunas

In his fifth Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season, center Joffrey Lauvergne stormed to his first MVP of the Week honor by dominating as Zalgiris Kaunas beat Khimki Moscow Region 102-75 on Friday for its sixth consecutive victory. Lauvergne scored a career-best 29 points by making 13 of 14 two-point shots, or 92.8%, which ranks second all-time for two-point accuracy in a EuroLeague game. Lauvergne also pulled down 9 rebounds and dished 2 assists for a performance index rating of 38. Both his scoring and PIR topped Lauvergne’s previous bests by 9. The second-best performance this week belonged to Anadolu Efes Istanbul point guard Vasilije Micic, who posted 23 points, 9 assists and 5 steals for a PIR of 35 in a big 80-102 road win against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade big man Johnny O’Bryant registered a PIR 30 in a loss against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, collecting 17 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists. Next came Kostas Sloukas of Olympiacos Piraeus with a PIR of 29 based on his 24 points, 7 assists and 3 steals in an 84-82 win over FC Bayern Munich. Rounding out the weekly list of top performers were Khimki’s Devin Booker and ALBA Berlin’s Jayson Granger, each with a PIR of 28 in their team’s respective defeats. Booker had 19 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals, while Granger posted 13 points and 11 assists in a home loss to Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv.

Individual highs: Vasilije Micic, Efes, 5 steals

Lauvergne’s 29 points were the most of any EuroLeague player this week. Mike James of CSKA Moscow remains EuroLeague’s top scorer with 20.5 points per game. Efes forward James Anderson led all players with 11 rebounds this week. CSKA center Nikola Milutinov is the league’s top rebounder with 8.4 on average. No player had more assists than Granger’s 11 in Round 18. Khimki guard Alexey Shved is the overall leader in assists with 8.4 per game. Micic’s career-high 5 steals were the most of any player this week. Pierria Henry of TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz averages a league-high 2.0 steals this season. Real Madrid big man Walter Tavares was the only player with 3 blocks this week. Tavares is also the league leader with 2.0 blocks per game. There were seven double-doubles this week, and six came in Round 18 games: O’Bryant had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Anderson 12 points plus 11 rebounds, Valencia Basket’s Mike Tobey 13 points and 11 boards, Granger 13 points and 11 assists, while Henry and Kevin Pangos of Zenit St Petersburg each had 18 points and 10 assists. Baskonia’s Achille Polonara had 18 points and 10 rebounds in a rescheduled Round 5 game on Tuesday.