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| Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs - Game 5 MVP: Nicolas Laprovittola, FC Barcelona |
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When it mattered most, FC Barcelona guard Nicolas Laprovittola registered the biggest game of his four-year Turkish Airlines EuroLeague career to walk off with the Game 5 MVP award and walk into his first Final Four. In an 81-72 victory over visiting FC Bayern Munich, Laprovittola scored personal-best 26 points, which was nothing less than the second-highest scoring total by a Barca player in the club's 59 playoff games to date. To do that, Laprovittola made 2 of 5 two-point shots, 5 of 7 triples and all 7 of his free throws. He added 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 rebounds while drawing 6 fouls for a performance index rating of 30, another career high. Laprovittola's second MVP of the Round honor in four EuroLeague seasons comes three months after his first one, in Round 26 of the regular season.
The next-best Game 5 performances belonged to Laprovittola's teammate, Nikola Mirotic, and AS Monaco guard Mike James, each with a PIR of 26. Mirotic had 20 points and 5 rebounds in Barca's win over Bayern, while James had 24 points, 10 assists and 4 rebounds in a 94-88 loss against Olympiacos Piraeus. In that same game, Olympiacos guard Shaquielle McKissic posted a PIR of 24 based on his 18 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in just 17 minutes of action, while his teammate Kostas Sloukas had a PIR of 22 after collecting 15 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds in their team's series-clinching victory.
Individual highs: Mike James, Monaco, 10 assists
Laprovittola led all players in Game 5 with 26 points. Vasilije Micic of Anadolu Efes Istanbul finished as the top playoffs scorer, with 18.5 points per game, and the full-season best with 18.2. Bayern forward Vladimir Lucic pulled down 10 rebounds, the high for Game 5. Sasha Vezenkov of Olympiacos led the playoffs with 6.6 boards per game. Georgios Papagiannis of Panathinaikos OPAP Athens topped the full-season chart at 8.2 on average. With 10 assists, James led all Game 5 passers and tied Nick Calathes of Barcelona for the playoffs lead with 5.8 per game. UNICS Kazan guard Lorenzo Brown's 6.1 average in assists was the season's best. Lucic and Laprovittola each had 2 steals in Game 5, while Shavon Shields of AX Armani Exchange Milan had the best playoffs average, 1.8. John Brown of UNICS has league-high 2.8 steals for the season. Just three players blocked a shot each in Game 5: Othello Hunter of Bayern and the Olympiacos duo of Kostas Papanikolaou and Tyler Dorsey. Walter Tavares of Real Madrid led the playoffs with 2.3 blocks per game and Papagiannis was the best for the season at 1.7 per contest. James's 24 points and 10 assists were the only double-double in Game 5. Papagiannis, with 8 double-doubles, led all players for the season to date.
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