Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs – Game 1 MVP: Brandon Davies, FC Barcelona

A big-time performance in a reserve role allowed Brandon Davies of FC Barcelona to earn the MVP honor for Game 1 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs. Davies led Barca to a 77-67 home victory against FC Bayern Munich by coming off the bench to get 19 points on 6-for-9 two-point and 7-for-10 free-throw shooting. He added 5 rebounds, a steal and 8 fouls drawn to amass a performance index rating of 24, the highest for any player in playoffs Game 1. Davies has now earned the MVP of the Round honor for the fifth time in his career and the second time this season following his PIR of 38 back in Round 4 of the regular season. Fabien Causeur of Real Madrid and Scottie Wilbekin had PIRs of 21 each in the opener of their playoff series. Causeur led Real to an 84-74 home victory with 20 points while making 3 of 5 two-pointers, 4 of 6 threes and 2 of 2 free throws. He added 4 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal. Wilbekin could not help Maccabi beat Real despite finishing the game with 20 points on 4-for-7 three-point and 6-for-6 free-throw shooting. Vladimir Lucic of Bayern (19 PIR), Nigel Williams-Goss of Real and Dante Exum of Barcelona, with PIRs of 18 each, completed the top individual performances in the opening games of the playoffs.

Individual highs: Williams-Goss, Real, 8 assists

Causeur, Lucic and Wilbekin had 20 points each to open the playoffs, the most among all players in Game 1. Vasilije Micic of Anadolu Efes Istanbul is the competition’s top scorer at 18.0 points per night. Adrien Moerman of Efes, Livio Jean-Charles of Olympiacos Piraeus and Micic each had 7 rebounds to lead this round’s standings. Georgios Papagiannis of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens is the overall rebounds leader at 8.2 per night. Nigel Williams-Goss of Real dished 8 assists, more than anyone in all playoffs openers. Lorenzo Brown of UNICS Kazan is this season’s assist leader at 6.1 per game. Thomas Walkup of Olympiacos Piraeus collected 4 steals in his team’s win against AS Monaco. John Brown of UNICS ranks first overall at 2.8 per night. Moerman, Walter Tavares of Real, his teammate Vincent Poirier, Roman Sorkin of Maccabi, Nicolo Melli of AX Armani Exchange Milan, and Moustapha Fall of Olympiacos each had 2 blocks in Game 1. Papagiannis is also first in blocks at 1.7 per game.