Shane Larkin re-wrote history books on Friday night while powering Anadolu Efes Istanbul to a 91-79 home win over Olympiacos Piraeus and earning, in the process, another MVP of the Round honor.
Round 28 MVP: Shane Larkin, Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Awards
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Shane Larkin re-wrote history books on Friday night while powering Anadolu Efes Istanbul to a 91-79 home win over Olympiacos Piraeus and earning, in the process, another MVP of the Round honor. Larkin scored 40 points, becoming the first player this century with two 40-point games to his name while also re-tying a EuroLeague single-game mark that he matched earlier this season by making 10 three-point shots again. Larkin downed 10 of 15 attempts from long distance and made 3 of 6 two-pointers on the night. He also collected 5 assists, 3 steals and 3 rebounds, accumulating a performance index rating of 44, the highest of all players in Round 28. This marks Larkin's sixth MVP of the Round award, tying the single-season record. The next-best PIR this round was 37 by Nikola Mirotic, who led FC Barcelona to a come-from-behind 83-80 win over FC Bayern Munich. Mirotic had 28 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals and 10 fouls drawn. Bojan Dubljevic of Valencia Basket had an index rating of 31, with 19 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 9 fouls drawn, in an overtime loss against AX Armani Exchange Milan. Jock Landale of Zalgiris Kaunas had 27 points and a 30 PIR in an overtime loss against Zenit St Petersburg. Rounding out the list of top performers in Round 28, with a PIR of 28, was Tornike Shengelia of KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, who collected 24 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 1 game-winning block in his team's thrilling 73-72 victory over ALBA Berlin.
Individual highs: Vladimir Stimac, Zvezda, 12 rebounds
Larkin led all scorers this round with 40 points. Larkin is also the EuroLeague top scorer for the season with an average of 22.2 points. Vladimir Stimac of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade racked up 12 rebounds, the most in Round 28. Nikola Milutinov of Olympiacos Piraeus is the EuroLeague's rebounding leader with 8.2 per game. Thomas Walkup of Zalgiris dished 11 assists, more than any player this round. Nick Calathes of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens leads the league with 9.1 assists per game. Jan Vesely of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and Guerschon Yabusele of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne each had 4 steals, the most in Round 28. Pierria Henry of Baskonia tops the steals chart with 1.6 on average. Real Madrid's Walter Tavares had 3 blocks to lead all players this round. Tavares is top shot-blocker this season with 2.2 per game. There were two double-doubles this round: Stimac had 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Tonye Jekiri of ASVEL had 10 points and 11 rebounds.