The first-year guard has now tied Sasha Vezenkov for the most MVP of the Round awards this season
Play-In MVP: TJ Shorts, Paris Basketball
Awards
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Having enjoyed a starring role in guiding his team to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs, Paris Basketball star TJ Shorts has been secured Play-In MVP honors.
Shorts’s 27 PIR was the highest of any winning player across the three Play-In Showdown games, with Paris beating Real Madrid 73-81 on the road in the first round on Tuesday. The All-EuroLeague First Team guard finished with 23 points on 7-of-12 two-pointers, 1-of-5 threes, and 6-of-7 free throws, 9 assists and 9 fouls drawn, while he had a +10 in the plus/minus column, the second highest of any Paris player. This is Shorts’s fifth MVP award this season, which is tied for first with Olympiacos Piraeus forward Sasha Vezenkov.
The highest PIR during the Play-In Showdown belonged to Filip Petrusev, but it came in Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade’s 97-93 first-round defeat at FC Bayern Munich in overtime. Petrusev posted a 32 PIR after amassing a career-high 30 points on 12-of-14 twos, 1-of-3 threes, and 3-of-7 free throws, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block and 8 fouls drawn.
During that Bayern win over Crvena Zvezda, Devin Booker had 21 points on 3-of-9 two-point attempts, 2-of-3 triples, and 9-of-10 free throws, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and 8 fouls drawn en route to a 25 PIR.
Tied with a 24 PIR and rounding out the list of top performers in the Play-In Showdown are Crvena Zvezda’s Nikola Kalinic and Real Madrid’s Mario Hezonja.
Kalinic recorded a season-high 20 points on 6-of-9 twos, 2-of-3 threes, and 2-of-4 free throws, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 3 fouls drawn in the Serbian side’s defeat in Munich, while Hezonja led the way in Los Blancos’ second-round win over Bayern with 19 points on 5-of-5 two-pointers, 2-of-4 triples, and 3-of-3 free throws, 7 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 foul drawn.
Individual highs: TJ Shorts, Paris, 9 assists
Petrusev scored 30 points for Crvena Zvezda, more than anyone else in the two rounds of the Play-In Showdown. Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens star Kendrick Nunn is the league’s leading scorer with 21.1 points per game.
TJ Shorts dished 9 assists in Paris’s play-in win over Real Madrid, the highest number of dimes made by a player in the Play-In Showdown. Shorts also leads the league in assists with 7.5 helpers per night.
Real Madrid’s Gabriel Deck and Bayern’s Vladimir Lucic both pulled down 8 rebounds during their teams’ first-round games, the most of any player. Real Madrid’s Walter Tavares grabs a league-high 6.9 rebounds per contest.
Lucic and Crvena Zvezda’s Codi Miller-McIntyre made 3 steals each in their teams’ first-round matchup, the most in the Play-In Showdown. Bayern’s Nick Weiler-Babb, whose team was eliminated in the second round on Friday night, averaged a league-best 1.5 steals per game.
Paris duo Kevarrius Hayes and Leon Kratzer blocked 2 shots apiece in their team’s first-round triumph, with the two centers being the only players in the Play-In Showdown to block more than 1 shot. AS Monaco’s Georgios Papagiannis posts 1.4 blocks per night, the best average in the EuroLeague.
No players recorded a double-double in the Play-In Showdown.