Euroleague Regular Season, Round 3 MVP: Darius Adams, Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz

Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz exploded for the second-most in club history for a Turkish Airlines Euroleague road game in its blowout 71-107 victory at Limoges CSP on Thursday. The architect of the attack, Darius Adams, not only dominated in the 23 minutes he spent on the floor, but finished the week as the MVP for Regular Season Round 3. Adams racked up 18 points, plus career highs of 9 assists and 3 steals, to lead the charge for Laboral Kutxa. He made 5 of 8 two-point shots, 2 of 4 threes and sank both of his free throw attempts in compiling a performance index rating of 29, which was the most among all players among the 12 Round 3 games. Adams follows teammate Ioannis Bourousis as weekly MVP, which marks the first time since the 2007-08 season that a team enjoyed back-to-back MVP efforts from different players in the regular season; then it was Efes Pilsen players Scoonie Penn and Loren Woods who achieved the same feat. Close behind Adams were Malcolm Delaney of Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar and Nando De Colo of CSKA Moscow, each with performance index ratings of 28. De Colo starred in an 83-77 victory over Brose Baskets Bamberg with 22 points and just 3 missed shots plus 7 assists and 2 steals. Delaney led Lokomotiv to a 75-83 road win at Stelmet Zielona Gora with 25 points and just 4 missed shots, 5 assists and 1 steal. Rounding out the list of Round 3 stars were Khimki Moscow Region big man James Augustine and Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari forward Christian Eyenga, each with index ratings of 25. Augustine recorded 14 points, 5 rebounds and 4 blocks as Khimki routed Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade 91-53. Eyenga set a career high with 21 points scored plus 6 rebounds in a 79-63 loss at Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv.

Individual leaders: Trevor Mbakwe of Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, 15 rebounds

The 25-point effort by Lokomotiv’s Delaney made him the top scorer for Round 3. Delaney is in a familiar spot, because he also leads all players so far this season with a scoring average of 20 points per game. Maccabi FOX big man Trevor Mbakwe was the best rebounder of Round 3 with 15 boards. Round 3’s second-best rebounder, Crvena Zvezda center Maik Zirbes, tops the season-long charts with 9 rebounds per game. Round 3 MVP Adams was also its co-assists leader with 9, an honor he shared with Unicaja Malaga point guard Stefan Markovic. Anadolu Efes Istanbul playmaker Thomas Heurtel’s 9.3 assists per game lead all players through three games. David Logan of Dinamo Sassari has been one of the Euroleague’s best ball thieves over his career and he showed why on Thursday with 5 steals against his former team. Logan is tied with FC Bayern Munich point guard Bradley Wanamaker for the league lead with 3 steals per game. No one had more blocked shots in Round 3 that Khimki’s Augustine, who swatted 4 shots. He is one of six players sharing the regular season lead with 1.7 blocks per game. Five players - Mbakwe, Zirbes, Justin Carter of Pinar Karsiyaka Izmir, Paulius Jankunas of Zalgiris Kaunas and Miro Bilan of Cedevita Zagreb - registered respective double-doubles in regular season Round 3.