Top five performances at Zalgirio Arena by 2023 Final Four attendees

For some players competing in the 2023 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, returning to Zalgirio Arena will bring back good memories. Kaunas is the hometown of FC Barcelona head coach Saras Jasikevicius and Zalgiris – the team of the city – is where the likes of Barca's Rokas Jokubaitis, Olympiacos Piraeus's Thomas Walkup and AS Monaco's Donatas Motiejunas all played, yet for a select few players, they had performances to remember at Zalgirio Arena. Here are the top five!

No. 5: John Brown stole the show

Going into his first EuroLeague Final Four in his second year in the competition, Monaco big man John Brown returns to a venue where he had one of the best games of his career. In February 2022, while playing for UNICS Kazan, Brown led his team to a 67-76 win at Zalgirio Arena and amassed 15 points, a career-high 11 rebounds and also 5 steals. To this day, it is Brown's only double-double in EuroLeague action. He scored 15 points by shooting 7-of-14 from the field, while he was the tone setter on defense for UNICS, which allowed just 41 points over the final 30 minutes of the game. Brown finished the game with a team-high PIR of 23. This display is one of Brown's best four performances in road games when it comes to PIR and two-point shots made, and he's never beaten the 5 steals he recorded when playing away from home.

No. 4: Rudy caught fire at Zalgirio Arena in crunch time

Real Madrid has had its fair share of success when playing at Zalgirio Arena, and veteran forward Rudy Fernandez is a big reason why. One of his most impressive performances came in Round 5 of the 2018-19 season, as the then-defending champs rolled into Kaunas. Real never led through the first three quarters, but the game was tied at 73-73 with 5 minutes to go. At that moment Fernandez had 3 points to his tally, but before the game's final buzzer, Rudy buried 4 more triples on as many attempts, helping Real pull away to a 79-90 win. Fernandez finished with 15 points on 5-for-7 three-point shooting and 7 assists, one of which came in that final 5-minute span. It was one of the best road games in Rudy's career in terms of three-point shooting and assists. Interestingly, Fernandez set his career high of 9 assists five years earlier during Real's 2013-14 season-opening 63-83 win.

No. 3: Vezenkov's two-point best and a game-winner

The last time Olympiacos Piraeus and Sasha Vezenkov visited Zalgirio Arena, exactly two months ago in Round 29, they pulled out a thrilling 72-74 win over the Lithuanian hosts. Vezenkov was the Reds' hero that day, not only helping the Reds rally in a game that they trailed but hitting the game-winning shot, too. With the game tied at 72-72, Vezenkov buried a contested baseline jumper with 6.7 seconds remaining, and finished the game with 25 points, shooting a career-best 9-of-9 on two-pointers as well as making 2-of-7 three-pointers and making his sole free-throw attempt. He also added 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals for a PIR of 32. During that game at Zalgirio Arena, Vezenkov also passed the 2,000-point mark in his EuroLeague career. Now, he returns to that same venue, hoping to lead Olympiacos to its fourth EuroLeague crown.

No. 2: James's career high in assists

The first-ever meeting between AS Monaco and Zalgiris on December 15, 2021 – the French side's first visit to Zalgirio Arena – produced a dramatic 98-107 overtime win, led by star guard Mike James, who dished a career-high 14 assists in the victory. James played almost 38 minutes in that Round 15 contest, scoring 20 points, making 6-of-11 twos, 1-of-4 threes and 5-of-6 free throws. He also pulled down 5 rebounds and had 1 steal for a PIR of 31, earning co-MVP of the Round honors in the process. However, the most impressive of all was the 14 assists produced by James, which is not only his personal best but is also the most recorded by any player in a EuroLeague game at Zalgirio Arena. What's more, it is the most assists a player has dished against Zalgiris in the EuroLeague this century!

No. 1: Mirotic sets all-time free throw marks

The first time Zalgirio Arena saw an overtime game in the EuroLeague came on March 7, 2013, when Real Madrid came to town for a Top 16 Round 10 showdown. Los Blancos won 104-105, led by current FC Barcelona star Nikola Mirotic, who had one of his best and memorable performances of his career. Mirotic finished with 31 points, which he has matched once in his career but still stands as his career high in scoring, along with 11 rebounds and 2 assists. It was Mirotic's lone double-double of that 2012-13 season, his third full campaign in the EuroLeague. He earned the second MVP of the Round honor of his career, too. Mirotic was 2-for-6 on two-pointers and 3-for-9 on threes in that contest, but was also perfect 18-for-18 from the free throw line. He made 6 free throws in the final 33 seconds of the regulation, including a pair with 3.4 seconds left, to send the game into overtime. In that game, Mirotic set two free-throw shooting records that no one has ever matched in a EuroLeague game, making the most-ever free throws in a single game and also the most free throws without a miss in a single game.