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Turkish Airlines EuroLeague RS - Round 24 MVP: James Nunnally, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv

James Nunnally returned to action this week after missing one game with an ankle injury and promptly turned in the finest performance of his Turkish Airlines EuroLeague career to lead Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv to its first road win since early November. The veteran swingman set career-highs with 32 points scored and a performance index rating of 38 to earn MVP of the Round honors for Round 24 after Maccabi defeated Zalgiris Kaunas 78-94. Nunnally was in elite shooting form as he made 6 of 7 two-pointers and 6 of 7 three-pointers as well as both of his free throws. He added 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block in compiling the PIR, which was the highest of all players in the round. He became the second Maccabi player to win MVP of the Round in the last three games, joining Ante Zizic, who did so in Round 22. This marks the first time that Nunnally, a 2017 EuroLeague champion with Fenerbahce Istanbul, won MVP of the Round honor.

The next-highest PIRs for Round 24 came from the protagonists on both sides of Anadolu Efes Istanbul's thrilling 97-99 overtime win at CSKA Moscow. Shane Larkin led the winners with 26 points and 9 assists for a PIR of 36. He made 4 of 7 two-pointers and 5 of 7 threes. CSKA guard Daniel Hackett posted a PIR of 32 after scoring a personal-best 31 points. He made 5 of 7 two-pointers and 6 of 10 shots from behind the arc. Rounding out the list of Round 24s top performers were Mike James of AS Monaco and Jordan Loyd of Zenit St Petersburg, each with PIRs of 29. James served up 29 points in his team's 83-91 victory at Panathinaikos OPAP Athens. Loyd scored 23 on 11-for-12 free-throw shooting in an 82-90 triumph at Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Individual highs: Tibor Pleiss of Efes, 12 rebounds

James Nunnally was not only the Round 24 MVP, but also its top scorer with 32 points. Nikola Mirotic of FC Barcelona remains the leading scorer this season with 17.5 points per game. No player in Round 24 took more rebounds than Tibor Pleiss's 12 for Efes. Panathinaikos center Georgios Papagiannis kept his place atop the charts with 7.7 rebounds per game. Shane Larkin and Lukas Lekavicius of Zalgiris Kaunas shared the Round 24 lead for assists with 9 apiece. Mike James holds a slim edge over UNICS Kazan's Lorenzo Brown for the league lead in assists with 6.0 per game. The 4 steals collected by Monaco guard Paris Lee were the most of any player in Round 24. John Brown III of UNICS is the season-long leader with 2.8 steals per game. After rejecting 4 shots for Real Madrid, Walter Tavares was again the leader for the round and raised his league-best average this season to 2.1 blocks per game. UNICS center Tonye Jekiri (10 points, 11 rebounds) recorded the lone double-double in Round 24.

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