EuroLeague Round 18 MVP: Alexey Shved, Khimki Moscow Region

With his team losing three of its last four games and facing a direct opponent in the race for the playoffs, Alexey Shved delivered another one of his elite performances, leading Khimki Moscow Region to an important 70-79 road win over Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. In the process, Shved compiled a performance index rating of 33, the highest among players on winning teams in Round 18, thereby earning his third MVP of the Round honor this season. Shved matched his career-high with 29 points, making 2 of 3 two-point shots, 5 of 11 triples, and 10 free throws in 11 attempts, which was a personal high. He also stepped up when it mattered most, scoring 8 points in 42 seconds bridging the final 2 minutes of the game to seal Khimki's victory. Shved also collected 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, and drew 7 personal fouls on Tuesday. A player from a losing side in the same game, Crvena Zvezda's Taylor Rochestie, set a career-high with a performance index rating of 38, the best of this round. Rochestie flirted with a triple-double, netting 27 points on 5-for-7 for two-point and 5-for-8 three-point shooting to go with 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Third among the best performers on Tuesday and Wednesday is Augustine Rubit of Brose Bamberg. He had an index rating of 29 and scored 22 points, both the high marks of his first EuroLeague season. He also had 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block and 5 fouls drawn in Brose's home win over Zalgiris Kaunas. Rounding out the list of top performers for Round 18, with index ratings of 26 each, are Jordan Theodore of AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan and Bojan Dubljevic of Valencia Basket. Theodore had 14 points, 11 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals in a win over Unicaja Malaga. Dubljevic scored 19 points with 7 rebounds and 6 fouls drawn in his team's victory over FC Barcelona Lassa.

Individual highs: Jordan Theodore of AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan, 11 assists

Shved had the highest scoring mark of this round with 29 points and increased his lead as EuroLeague's top scorer to 22.3 points per game, which is the EuroLeague's third-highest average ever after 18 games. Chris Singleton of Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens and Vladimir Stimac of Anadolu Efes Istanbul each had 12 rebounds in Round 18. Stimac now leads all qualified players in the competition with 7.4 rebounds per game. Milan's Theodore dished 11 assists, more than any other player this round. Nick Calathes of Panathinaikos remains the outright league leader with 8.2 assists per night. Luka Doncic of Real Madrid and Stefan Markovic of Khimki each had round-high of 3 steals. Calathes is the EuroLeague's steals leader with 1.9 on average. Stimac led all players in this round with 3 blocks, too. His Efes teammate Bryant Dunston is the top shot blocker this season with 1.7 per game. There were four double-doubles in Round 18. Singleton had 14 points and 12 rebounds and Stimac had 10 points to go with his 12 rebounds. Theodore scored 14 points along with his 11 assists, while Thomas Heurtel of FC Barcelona Lassa had 14 points and 10 assists.