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EuroLeague MVP for March: Carlik Jones, Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade
His return from injury sparked a perfect 5-0 month for Partizan |
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Carlik Jones authored a remarkable month of basketball that revived Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade's season and saw him named as the EuroLeague Basketball MVP for the Month of March presented by Motorola. The dynamic guard was instrumental in Partizan's perfect 5-0 run, proving that the "every game matters" mantra truly means something.
Partizan was sitting in 19th place with a 9-20 record through 29 games in late February, but Jones's return from injury in the last of those games – having been sidelined since Round 5 – provided the spark that has made Partizan the hottest team in the EuroLeague right now. Its current five-game winning run ties a club record for its longest winning streak in the competition, something it had only achieved three times before.
The March award covered five games, during which Jones averaged 18.4 points, 4.8 assists and a 20.8 PIR. He shot 60.0% inside the arc and also contributed 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game.
Jones's influence extended well beyond the box score: Partizan scored 88 points or more in four of its five March wins, compared to just three times in the 23 games he missed, and he also recorded 3 of his 8 career blocks during the month to show he was ready to do a little bit of everything.
“There are a lot of stacked teams and a lot of great players, so I think it's a big-time award," Jones told Olivia Harlan Dekker on the EuroLeague & Friends: MVP Talk podcast. "I'm glad that I was able to come back, compete and win this award. It was a goal of mine, honestly, to try to win one of these MVP of the Month awards and just kind of prove myself. I've been missing a lot during the season, so I just wanted to come back and make some noise."
Playing the role of spoiler, Partizan dented the postseason hopes of Virtus Bologna and Dubai Basketball with wins of 82-88 and 88-74, respectively, before delivering a blow to Valencia Basket's top-four ambitions with a dramatic double-overtime victory, 110-104, in Belgrade. Partizan also beat Paris Basketball 81-90 on the road and edged LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 79-78 at home to complete the perfect month.
In each of Partizan's three wins over postseason-hopeful opposition, as well as the victory over ASVEL, Jones scored 14 or more points and posted a PIR of 19 or higher. He opened the month with a 23-point performance against Dubai – at the time the joint-second highest scoring total of his career – of which 9 points came in the fourth quarter. He also added 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 1 block for a PIR of 24, the joint-fourth highest index rating of his career, and a +16 in the plus/minus column.
He followed that up with 19 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals for a 19 PIR at Virtus, scoring 6 points in the final 2:23 and finishing with a +13 in the plus/minus column, as Partizan claimed just its third road win of the season and first since mid-January. Jones then amassed 9 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 steal in Paris as Partizan secured back-to-back away wins for the first time since Rounds 25 and 26 last season.
Next came a tight clash with ASVEL, where Jones finished with 14 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block for a 21 PIR, also posting a +7 in the plus/minus column. With 1.1 seconds remaining, he stepped to the free-throw line and coolly converted a game-winning free throw.
His finest hour arrived in Round 33's triumph over Valencia, where he posted a career-high 27 points alongside 2 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 1 block for a 23 PIR. Nine of those points came in the two overtime sessions as Jones gave the Partizan faithful inside Belgrade Arena plenty to cheer about.
“[To be the first Partizan player] to win the MVP of the Month since 2009 is big time,” Jones said. “I think us going 5-0 is even more of a highlight just because of the tough season we've had, with the coaching change, with some of the players changing, and just having a new coach come in. It's a tough situation, but I think it's a huge bright spark for us to just come out here this month and tie some wins together. It's the first time we've won four or five games in a row, so for us we're just going to keep trying to build and I hope this kind of just fires some energy up under us.”
Partizan may not have been in postseason contention for some time, but its March run – inspired by the play of Jones – is a testament to the strength and spirit of the EuroLeague, where every team competes with pride and intensity regardless of where they stand in the standings. Even with seemingly nothing left to play for, Jones refused to go through the motions, and in doing so embodied everything the competition stands for.
This is Jones's first MVP of the Month honor, and he becomes the fourth Partizan player to receive the award, following Milt Palacio in March 2008, Novica Velickovic in February 2009 and Aleks Maric in December 2009. With just four rounds remaining, Jones and Partizan are proof that in the EuroLeague, every game matters right to the very end.
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