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Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season - Round 33 MVP: Shane Larkin, Anadolu Efes Istanbul

Shane Larkin turned on his engines and rallied reigning champion Anadolu Efes Istanbul from 15 points down to a playoff-clinching 87-77 win over visiting ALBA Berlin on Friday night, and in the process earned the MVP of the Round honor. It is the third such award of the season for Larkin, and the 14th of his career, coming behind 28 points, which he reached by making 4-of-9 two-point shots and 6-of-11 threes. Larkin also had 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals, as well as 5 drawn fouls for a performance index rating of 35, the highest in Round 33. The next best PIR, 30, belonged to a pair of centers, Ante Zizic of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and Georgios Papagiannis of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens. Zizic paced Maccabi to a playoff-clinching 94-73 win over LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne with a career-high 24 points, on 8-for-10 two-pointers, along with 5 rebounds and 2 assists, while Papagiannis scored 18 points in an 87-86 upset win over Real Madrid. The big man was 9-of-11 on two-pointers, with 10 rebounds and 5 blocks. AS Monaco center Donta Hall had an index rating of 27, collecting 16 points on perfect 6-for-6 shooting, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks in a win over AX Armani Exchange Milan. Rounding out the list of top performers in Round 33 are Walter Tavares of Real and Shavon Shields of Milan, each with a PIR of 26. Shields had 22 points, 5 assists and 3 rebounds, while Tavares posted 12 points plus 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block.

Individual leader, Georgios Papagiannis, Panathinaikos, 5 blocks.

Larkin led all scorers in Round 30 with 28 points. His teammate Vasilije Micic is the EuroLeague top scorer this season with 18.1 points per game. Tavares had 12 rebounds, more than any other player in Round 30. Papagiannis leads the EuroLeague in rebounding with 8.1 per game. Larkin led all players with 8 assists this round. Lorenzo Brown of UNICS Kazan tops the assists charts this season with 6.1 per game. Scottie Wilbekin of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and Larkin had 4 steals each, better than all other players in Round 30. John Brown of UNICS leads the league averaging 2.8 steals. With 5 blocks, Papagiannis was the top shot-blocker of the round. Tavares leads the league with 1.7 per game. The two double-doubles of this round belong to Papagiannis and Tavares.

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 7DAYS 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.