Top 16, Week 1 MVP: Lynn Greer, Olympiacos
|
Another solid all-around game gave one of the highest-rated performers all season the Week 1 MVP award in the Top 16 - even if he would have preferred a victory for his team. Lynn Greer of Olympiacos scored 26 points on 5-for-7 two-point and 7-for-8 free-throw shooting, but couldn't prevent a 67-75 home loss against Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv on Thursday. Greer added 2 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and 10 fouls drawn to amass a performance index rating of 31. Following him with the second-best performance this week was Drew Nicholas of Efes Pilsen, who paced his team to a major 74-64 home win against Panathinaikos. Nicholas scored 29 points, making 6 of 7 two-pointers and 5 of 12 three-pointers to go with 2 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals for a 29 index. Willie Solomon of Fenerbahce Ulker helped his team to grab a 88-96 road win against Aris TT Bank with a 26 index. Solomon had 23 points on 3-for-4 two-point, 5-for-10 three-point and 2-for-2 free-throw shooting, plus 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals. Trajan Langdon of CSKA Moscow (index 25), Ksistof Lavrinovic of Montepaschi Siena (24) and Marijonas Petravicius of Lietuvos Rytas (24) completed the top individual performances this week.
Individual highs: Drew Nicholas, Efes Pilsen, 29 points
 His 29 points against Panathinaikos made Nicholas the Top 16, Week 1 best scorer. Nicholas was the Alphonso Ford Top Scoring award winner in the 2005-06 season playing for Benetton Treviso. Jeremiah Massey of Aris TT Bank led all rebounders by pulling down 13 in his team's home loss against Fenerbahce Ulker. Massey also had 4 blocks, enough to tie atop the weekly standings with Fran Vazquez of AXA FC Barcelona and Omer Asik of Fenerbahce. Dejuan Collins of Zalgiris Kaunas had 9 assists, more than anyone this week, in his team's road loss against Real Madrid. Collins had been the Euroleague regular season assists champ, too. Bootsy Thornton collected 8 steals as Montepaschi Siena beat Partizan Igokea. He helped Montepaschi to set a new Euroleague defensive record with 29 steals, more than any other team ever in the competition's history. In fact, Montepaschi also owned the previous record with 27 steals in a regular season home win against Buducnost on February 13, 2003. Three players - Petravicius, Massey and Terence Morris of Maccabi Elite - registered respective double-doubles this week.
|
Friday, February 15, 2008
Euroleague.net
|