Zalgiris power forward Tyler Cavanaugh has entered Round 31 as one of the hottest players in all of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Who's hot: Tyler Cavanaugh, Zalgiris Kaunas
Stats
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In his second season in the competition, Cavanaugh has played his best stretch of EuroLeague games in recent weeks. The 28-year-old, who is averaging 8.4 points for his career, has taken his performances to another level this current month.
In the first three weeks of March, only four players scored more points in EuroLeague games than Cavanaugh's 65 points in four appearances.
His current hot streak came after a run of 13 games in which Cavanaugh scored in double-digits only three times. His performances took a sharp turn on March 1 in Athens. In a rescheduled Round 18 games against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, the Zalgiris power forward scored 15 points, making all 4 two-pointers and 2 triples while grabbing 9 rebounds in the Greek capital.
Cavanaugh remained hot only two days later in the German capital. He scored 18 points, making 4 of 5 two-pointers and 3 of 6 shots from long range while pulling down 7 rebounds in a loss against ALBA.
Despite missing the next week's game with an injury, Cavanaugh scored in double-digits again twice last week. He first had 10 points, shooting 2-for-2 from three-point land, along with 5 assists and 4 rebounds against Olympiacos. Cavanaugh then followed it up with a career-high 22 points, making 4 of 5 twos and 3 of 7 threes and pulling down 7 rebounds against defending champion Anadolu Efes Istanbul.
Accordingly, Cavanaugh's numbers have soared during the month of March. After posting 8.8 points on 35.2% three-points in his first 23 appearances, his scoring averaged nearly doubled to 16.3 points in his last four games, during which Cavanaugh netted 10 triples on 18 attempts for 55.6% accuracy, more than a 20-percent improvement.
In addition, after averaging 5.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists and a PIR of 9.0 up to Round 27, Cavanaugh raised his rebounding numbers to 6.5 per game, he improved to 2.3 assists, and his PIR more than doubled to 19.8 per contest.
Cavanaugh will have a chance to continue his hot run on Wednesday when Zalgiris hosts LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.