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Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs - Game 1 MVP: Nigel Hayes-Davis, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul

It was a night to remember for Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul after knocking off AS Monaco 91-95 to steal home-court advantage in their series. Nigel Hayes-Davis claiming MVP honors for Round 1 of the playoffs was the icing on the cake.

The star forward led Fenerbahce with 19 points, 7 rebounds and 39 minutes played in totaling a PIR of 23. That was the highest among winning players in Game 1. Hayes-Davis scored 12 of his points in the fourth quarter and overtime to score his third MVP honor and second within a month. He was most recently MVP of Round 32.

The highest PIR of the round came from Mathias Lessort of Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, who posted a 26 in his team’s 87-91 loss at the hands of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. Lessort had 22 points and 6 rebounds for the Greens. His teammate Kostas Slokas was next with a PIR of 23 after tallying 12 points, 13 assists and 2 steals.

Rounding out the top performers of Game 1 was Dzanan Musa of Real Madrid. Musa scored 16 points, grabbed 3 rebounds and dished 3 assists in just 17 minutes for a PIR of 20 in Los Blancos’s 90-74 rout of Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Playoffs Game 1 individual highs: Kostas Sloukas, 13 assists

Points
Mathias Lessort of Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens was the top scorer in the opening games of the 2024 EuroLeague Playoffs with a 22-point effort against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv.

Rebounds
Juancho Hernangomez of Panathinaikos and Jaron Blossomgame of AS Monaco shared the top spot in the charts for rebounds in Game 1 of the playoffs with 9 boards apiece.

Assists
Another Panathinaikos player, Kostas Sloukas, stood out with the Game 1 high for assists with 13. That also marked his career-best.

Steals
With 3 steals each, Mike James of AS Monaco and Shaq McKissic of Olympiacos Piraeus stood out with the most of this phase of the playoffs.

Blocks
Fittingly, the all-time EuroLeague leader in blocked shots, Walter Tavares of Real Madrid, was the only player with multiple blocks in Game 1 of the playoffs. He finished his team’s victory over Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz with 2 rejections.

Double-doubles
The lone double-double in Game 1 of the playoffs came from Kostas Sloukas, who had 12 points and 13 assists for Panathinaikos in their loss to Maccabi.

Euroleague Basketball (EB) is a global leader in the sports and entertainment business, devoted to running the top European competitions of professional basketball clubs under a unique and innovative organizational model. Owned and administered by some of the most successful and historic clubs in the world, EB manages the continent’s two premier men’s basketball competitions, the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and the BKT EuroCup, as well as the sport’s premier under-18 showcase, the EB Adidas Next Generation Tournament.

The EB competitions bring the elite of European basketball to all five continents and to the entire sports community through the OTT platform EuroLeague TV. EB also organizes a series of community and educational activities, led by the One Team program, in alignment with the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. On the academic side, the EB Sports Business MBA trains future professionals in sports management.