Playoffs, Game 1 MVP: Dusan Kecman, Partizan

One of the finest displays of leadership in Playoffs history was just enough on Tuesday to make Partizan Belgrade swingman Dusan Kecman the Game 1 MVP in more ways than one. Kecman was the chief protagonist as Partizan rallied from 21 points behind to shock Maccabi Electra with a 77-85 road victory to seize the homecourt advantage in their best-of-five series. Kecman, who won the Euroleague title last season with Panathinaikos, started Partizan's scoring on Tuesday with a modest layup, but soon was measuring his long-range shot even as Maccabi roared ahead by 36-15 midway through the second quarter. Kecman kept drilling triples, however, burying 7 of 9 attempts by the end of the night, as Partizan slowly silenced the city of Tel Aviv until pulling off the eight-point upset. Kecman finished with 29 points, his Euroleague career high. His 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal helped him get a performance index rating of 30, which was the best of the night, but not by much. Following Kecman, in a valiant but losing effort, was Asseco Prokom Gdynia forward Qyntel Woods, whose 23 points and 11 rebounds led to a 29 index rating and put a scare into host Olympiacos, which survived in the end, 83-79. Just one rating point behind came the Olympiacos star of that victory, forward Linas Kleiza, with 26 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals for a 28 index rating. One of Kecman's teammates, point guard Bo McCalebb, followed with a 24 index rating on a near triple-double of 12 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists in Partizan's huge comeback win. And in fifth position was another big winner, Pete Mickeal of Regal FC Barcelona, who scored 18 points and pulled 6 rebounds on the way to a 23 index rating in a 68-61 victory over Real Madrid that was helped mightily by his back-to-back triples in the fourth quarter.

Individual highs: Boniface Ndong, Regal FC Barcelona, 3 blocked shots

Kecman's 29 points put him at the top of the class among all scorers on opening night and were four more than his high in 119 previous Euroleague games. Those 11 rebounds by Woods for Prokom topped the table for Game 1 and moved him up to seventh place on the full season list, with 5.8 per game. The top passer of the evening was Pablo Prigioni of Real Madrid, who distributed 8 assists. He is ranked fourth over the course of the season with 4.7 assists on average. Maccabi teammates Doron Perkins and Alan Anderson collected 3 steals each, the most in Game 1. Viktor Khryapa of CSKA Moscow had 2 in his team's blowout victory over Caja Laboral, matching his league-leading average for the full season. Boniface Ndong led a block parade by Barcelona with 3, one more than teammates Fran Vazquez and Erazem Lorbek, as well as Maccabi's D'or Fischer, the full-season leader with 1.7 per night. Woods and McCalebb, the latter with special mention as a point guard with double-digit rebounds, were the only players to post double-doubles in Game 1.