MVP of the Week: Wade Baldwin, Bayern Munich

FC Bayern Munich moved into a tie for third place in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season standings on the strength of a club-record performance by Wade Baldwin that was also worth his first MVP of the Week honor. Baldwin posted a performance index rating of 41 to set Bayern’s highest individual mark in its four EuroLeague seasons while leading his team to a 90-77 home win over FC Barcelona. Baldwin scored 29 points, the second-highest total in club history, to go with 7 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals in the victory. Zach LeDay of AX Armani Exchange Milan followed Baldwin with a PIR of 31 in his team’s 87-91 overtime home loss to CSKA Moscow. He scored 21 points on perfect shooting – 3 of 3 two-pointers, 1 of 1 from three-point distance and 12 of 12 free throws – while pulling 7 rebounds. In the same game, Nikola Milutinov of CSKA set a EuroLeague record with 16 offensive rebounds and scored 17 points for a PIR of 30. Kostas Sloukas of Olympiacos Piraeus came next with a PIR of 29 in his team’s 88-105 road win at Khimki Moscow Region. Sloukas nailed 5 of 7 three-pointers for 25 points, 1 short of his career high, and dished 5 assists. Alexey Shved of Khimki had a 28 PIR in that game based on his 22 points, 9 assists and 4 rebounds to round out the week’s top performances.

Individual highs: Nikola Milutinov, 19 rebounds
Bayern’s Baldwin was the week’s top scorer with 29 points, his career high. Mike James of CSKA continues leading the overall rankings with 20.6 points per game. CSKA’s Milutinov ripped 19 rebounds in his team’s win over Milan, matching the highest single-game total in the EuroLeague since 2011. He is also the league leader for the season with 8.8 boards per game. James had the highest assists total of the week, with 11. Shved of Khimki is the assists leader with 8.4 per game. Nick Wieler-Babb of Bayern led all stealers with 4 this week. Pierria Henry of TD Sytems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz is the overall leader with 2.1 steals per game. Achille Polonara of Baskonia had 4 blocked shots, the most this week. Walter Tavares of Real Madrid and Georgios Papagiannis of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens share the lead in blocks with 1.9 on average. Three CSKA players were the only double-double performers this week: Milutinov, with 17 points and 19 rebounds; James with 20 points and 11 assists; and Johannes Voigtmann, with 13 points and 12 rebounds.