Round 26 MVP: Kendrick Nunn, Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens

His career night capped a perfect week for himself and the Greens

A truly dominant second-half performance by Kendrick Nunn has seen the Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens star earn Round 26 MVP honors with a round-high and career-high 37 PIR.

Nunn sat on 6 points at halftime, having scored the final basket of the first half to make it 49-47 against Anadolu Efes Istanbul, then erupted for 30 points after the interval as he finished on 36 – his second-highest tally in 60 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague appearances – in a 104-89 victory. This is just the second time that Nunn has scored 30 points or more in a EuroLeague game, with the other being his 39-point outing in Round 16 earlier this season. He reached 36 points after going 7 for 10 on two-pointers, 5 for 11 on three-pointers and a perfect 7 for 7 from the free-throw line. Nunn also posted 4 rebounds, including 2 on the offensive end, 2 assists, 2 steals and 4 fouls drawn. This is Nunn’s MVP of the Round accolade, as he was the Game 5 MVP during last year’s EuroLeague Playoffs.

Finishing just behind Nunn was EA7 Emporio Armani Milan’s Zach LeDay, who had an equally dominant display in his team’s 87-89 win at Zalgiris Kaunas. LeDay had a 36 PIR having amassed 26 points on 5-of-9 two-pointers, 1-of-2 three-pointers and a perfect 13-of-13 free throws, 5 rebounds, 1 steal and 11 fouls drawn. The third-highest PIR in Round 26 belonged to Paris Basketball’s TJ Shorts, who had a 33 index rating in his team’s 77-83 victory at Virtus Segafredo Bologna. Shorts finished with 16 points on 6-of-7 two-pointers and 4-of-4 free throws, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 9 fouls drawn. FC Barcelona’s Kevin Punter had a 31 PIR, the fourth best in this round, in his team’s 88-90 loss to Olympiacos Piraeus. He posted 20 points on 4-of-7 two-pointers, 1-of-3 three-pointers and 9-of-9 free throws, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal and 7 fouls drawn. Rounding out the list of top performers is Olympiacos’s Sasha Vezenkov with a 30 PIR, having amassed 24 points on 6-of-8 two-pointers, 3-of-6 three-pointers and 3-of-3 free throws, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 4 fouls drawn and zero turnovers.

Individual highs: Kendrick Nunn, Panathinaikos, 36 points

Nunn led all players in Round 26 by scoring 36 points. Vezenkov remains the league’s leading scorer with 20.6 points per game.

ALBA Berlin big man David McCormack grabbed 11 rebounds in this round, more than anybody else. Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade’s Joel Bolomboy tops the rebounding charts with 8.1 per night.

Panathinaikos’s Kostas Sloukas and Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz’s Trent Forrest both dished the most assists in Round 26 with 9. Paris playmaker Shorts is the new leader in assists this season with 7.3 per game, just ahead of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv’s Tamir Blatt with 7.25 per contest.

Seven players – Paris duo TJ Shorts and Mikael Jantunen, FC Bayern Munich pair Nick Weiler-Babb and Johannes Voigtmann, Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade’s Sterling Brown, Zalgiris Kaunas’s Lonnie Walker, and Crvena Zvezda’s Ognjen Dobric – made a round-high 3 steals. Bayern ball hawk Weiler-Babb averages a league-best 1.7 steals per game.

Olympiacos’s Moustapha Fall, Milan’s Freddie Gillespie, Bayern’s Danko Brankovic all had 3 blocks in this round, the most in Round 26. Real Madrid’s Walter Tavares, the all-time leader in blocks, and AS Monaco’s Georgios Papagiannis are tied for the best average in blocks with 1.42 per night.

The only player to record a double-double in Round 26 was David McCormack (18 points, 11 rebounds).