A career-best performance from a perennial All-EuroLeague candidate in a must-win game for his team was more than enough for Walter Tavares of Real Madrid to walk off with the MVP honor for Game 3 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs. Tavares dominated to the tune of 26 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks for a performance index rating of 41, the second-best ever in the playoffs since 2005, as Real Madrid stared down elimination with an 80-82 road win at Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade. While his PIR was a club record in the playoffs, he tied two others with his point total and 11 made two-pointers in 14 attempts.
Kostas Sloukas, the buzzer-beating hero as Olympiacos Piraeus downed host Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 71-72, followed with a PIR of 34 based on his 25 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds. The next-best PIR of 26 belonged to Fenerbahce center Tonye Jekiri, who scored 15 points and had 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in his team’s home loss. Wade Baldwin of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv posted a PIR of 24, collecting 16 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, despite a 78-83 home loss to AS Monaco. Rounding out the list of Game 3’s top performers is Mario Hezonja of Real, who collected 12 points, 14 rebounds and 3 assists for a PIR of 22.
Individual highs: Mario Hezonja, Real, 14 rebounds
Walter Tavares of Real Madrid was Game 3’s top scorer with a career-high tying 26 points. Sasha Vezenkov of Olympiacos Piraeus leads the EuroLeague in scoring with 17.7 points per game. Real forward Mario Hezonja led all players with a career-best 14 rebounds. Mathias Lessort of Partizan remains EuroLeague’s top rebounder with 7.2 per game. Three players had 6 assists in Game 3: Kostas Sloukas of Olympiacos, Wade Baldwin of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and Nick Calathes of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz playmaker Darius Thompson leads the league with 6.7 assists per night. Elie Okobo of AS Monaco and Jan Vesely of FC Barcelona each had 3 steals, the most in Game 3. Olympiacos guard Thomas Walkup tops the charts averaging 1.9 steals. Tavares led all players in Game 3 with 3 blocks, as he improved on his season-best 2.2 block per game. There were two double-doubles in Game 3, both by Real Madrid players, with Tavares collecting 26 points and 11 rebounds, and Hezonja 12 points and 14 rebounds.
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