Week 10 bwin MVP: Pietro Aradori, Montepaschi Siena

For the second week in a row, Montepaschi Siena guard Pietro Aradori took advantage of an opportunity to play extended minutes and proceeded to improve his Euroleague career highs in every major statistical category in leading the Italian champions to victory. What’s more, Aradori’s performance against Asseco Prokom on Wednesday earned him Week 10 bwin MVP honors. Aradori is only two weeks past his 23rd birthday and now showing signs of stardom predicted when he was a Euroleague rookie five seasons ago. After leading the team to a come-from-behind victory over previously undefeated FC Barcelona Regal in Week 9, Aradori shined even brighter on the road in Poland with 23 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals – all career bests – en route to a performance index rating of 33, which was the best seen in the Euroleague on the final games of the 2011-12 regular season. Aradori only missed 2 shots, drew 7 fouls and committed just 1 turnover as Montepaschi won 53-79 for its fourth straight victory. Second to Aradori on the list of Week 10 stars was Boni Ndong of Barcelona, who needed just 17 minutes on the floor in his team’s 79-50 victory over Galatasaray Medical Park to amass 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting, 6 rebounds and 4 blocked shots for a career-best 29 index rating. Big men Pero Antic of Olympiacos and Mario Kasun of KK Zagreb were next with index ratings of 28. Antic collected 20 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks as the Reds beat SLUC Nancy 74-79. Kasun scored 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting and grabbed 8 rebounds in an 87-76 loss at Zalgiris Kaunas. Rounding out the list of Week 10’s best were Maccabi Electra guard Keith Langford and Fenerbahce Ulker center Oguz Savas. Langford enjoyed his finest game since joining the Israeli champs with 20 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal in a 69-86 win at Belgacom Spirou. Savas helped the Turkish champs advance to the Top 16 and win Group A with 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting and 9 for 9 from the charity stripe plus 6 rebounds and a block in a 76-83 road win at Bennet Cantu. You also have a choice! Vote for your own bwin Fan MVP all season long!

Individual highs: John Linehan, 5 steals

Week 10 bwin MVP Aradori was also the week’s best scorer with 23 points. The best scorer of the regular season was Mirza Teletovic with an amazing 21.7 points per game for Caja Laboral. Antonis Fotsis of EA7 Emporio Armani and Kyke Hines of Olympiacos led the Week 10 charts with 12 rebounds each in respective victories. Partizan mt:s big man Milan Macvan’s 8.2 rebounds per game were the best in the Euroleague this season. Former Euroleague MVP Milos Teodosic’s 10 assists against Unicaja were not only the most in Week 10, but also made him the regular season’s top assister with 5.9 per game. SLUC Nancy guard John Linehan chalked up 5 steals in a loss to Olympiacos. With 2 steals per game, Linehan finished the regular season third in the Euroleague in that category. Pablo Prigioni led the league with 2.2 steals per game. Ndong was joined by Nancy big man Moussa Badiane as the Week 10 leaders in blocked shots with 4 each. And finally four players recorded double-doubles this week: Teodosic (18 points, 10 assists); Dusko Savanovic (15 points, 11 rebounds) of Anadolu Efes, Milan Macvan (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Kostas Kaimakoglou (11 points, 10 rebounds) of Panathinaikos.