In his debut in a CSKA Moscow uniform, reigning top scorer Mike James led the defending Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champions to a resounding 71-96 road win at Valencia Basket to earn the season's first MVP of Round 1 honor.
Round 1 MVP: Mike James, CSKA Moscow
Awards
3 Mins read
In his debut in a CSKA Moscow uniform, reigning top scorer Mike James led the defending Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champions to a resounding 71-96 road win at Valencia Basket to earn the season's first MVP of Round 1 honor. James was perfect from the field, shooting 6 for 6 on two-point shots and 1 for 1 from the three-point arc as he finished with 20 points. James also had 5 assists, 2 rebounds and drew 6 fouls for a performance index rating 28, the highest of all players in Round 1. This marks the third MVP of the Round honor in James's career. Second on the list of opening round's top performers was Vladimir Lucic of FC Bayern Munich, with a PIR 26 in his team's 78-64 home win over AX Armani Exchange Milan. Lucic had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. Two players had an index rating of 25, DeShaun Thomas of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens and Tonye Jekiri of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. Thomas paced the Greens to a home win over Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade with 18 points, a career-high 11 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Jekiri made his competition debut posting 13 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal against visiting Olympiacos Piraeus in ASVEL's first EuroLeague victory in nearly a decade. Rounding out the list of top performers in Round 1 is Facundo Campazzo of Real Madrid, who had 14 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals for a PIR 24 as his team toppled visiting Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul.
Individual highs: Youssoupha Fall, Baskonia, 5 blocks
Nikola Mirotic of FC Barcelona was the top scorer of Round 1 with 24 points. Thomas led all players in the opening round with 11 rebounds. Martin Hermannsson of ALBA Berlin had a memorable EuroLeague debut, dishing 9 assists, more than any player this week. Nihad Dedovic of Bayern and Janis Timma of Khimki Moscow Region each had 4 steals to lead the round. Youssoupha Fall of KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz had 5 blocks, 2 more than any other player. There were four double-doubles in Round 1: Derrick Williams of Fenerbahce collected 19 points and 10 rebounds, Thomas had 18 points plus 11 rebounds, Jekiri posted 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Nikola Milutinov of Olympiacos finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.