Sportando European Team of the Week: Week of April 29

With a couple of pan-European competitions – namely the FIBA Eurochallenge and the Adriatic League – closing up shop with championship games last weekend, this edition of the Sportando European Team of the Week is heavily weighted toward rewarding the top performances in those tournaments. However, we still acknowledge the best of the rest of The Continent’s players from all sorts of domestic league regular season homestretch runs, the final Euroleague quarterfinal matches and that NBA thing you may have heard about…

First team

Nemanja Nedovic, PG, Lietuvos Rytas. Nedovic’s 6-of-10, 13-points, five-assist showing in game two of the LKL semi-finals got the Lithuanian powerhouse past BC Prienai and into the next round, but it was his 20/4/4 performance – especially with one of the season’s great blocks – that gave the 6’3” (191cm) point guard early consideration for this week’s team.

Video: Nedovic with the physics-defying block of the year

Dwight Buycks, G, Gravelines Dunkerque. Thanks to Gravelines’ FIBA Eurochallenge dates, the French squad played a grueling back-to-back-to-back last week. Buycks started his on Friday with a nice 6-of-12, 20-point evening in a heartbreaking loss to Krasnye Krylia in Izmir. Back the next day in the LNB, Buycks proved he was wasn’t yet too tired to take the shots given, shooting 10-of-23 for 28 points to help the league leaders take care of no. 10 JDA Dijon. Finally, Buycks still managed 13 more for the tired-out Gravelines in a consolation-game loss on Sunday.

Video: Gravelines-EWE Baskets highlights…

Tre Simmons, SF, Krasnye Krylia. The 30-year-old showed his veteran savvy for the Red Wings in their two Eurochallenge Final Four games with what FIBA’s official statement described as “a stellar pair of showings,” including a stirring showing in Krylia’s sweet fourth-quarter comeback in the championship match.

Video: …and highlights from throughout the Eurochallenge Final Four

Adam Chubb, PF/C, EWE Baskets Oldenburg. Who would have figured that the first player to be named a Sportando Team of the Week first-teamer would be Chubb? Go figure. After getting a bit of a breather with just 16 minutes of court time in a laugher against relegation-bound LTi 46ers midweek, Chubb was left to concentrate on the Eurochallenge. And concentrate his did. Though in vain, the big guy contributed across the board with 19 points, eight boards, two assists, two steals and one block in the Final Four loss to Pinar Karsiyaka; Chubb completed his week with 12 points, eight rebounds and a massive +24 make in EWE Baskets’ third-place win.

Video: One more time, the official 2013 FIBA Eurochallenge, um, anthem

Rasko Katic, C, Crvena Zvezda/Red Star Belgrade. Perhaps most noteworthy of Katic’s accomplishments last week was his bagging of the Adriatic League Final Four MVP award despite playing for the second-place side: A serious break with standard procedure. And well-deserving he was with amazing performances of 22 points and five rebounds against Radnicki followed by 19 points and 12 rebounds in the losing effort against Partizan Belgrade.

Video: And a bonus flop by Katic!

Sixth man

Nathan Jawai, FC Barcelona. Again appearing out of nowhere to take over a single game was this year’s Captain Marvel, otherwise known as mild-mannered, big-bodied blue-collar guy Nate Jawai. That should-be-trademarked efficiency seen throughout the season and last truly on display in game one of the EL Quarterfinals against Panathainaikos had been tucked away as Jawai was used to serve as foil for Sofoklis “The Incredible Bulk” Schortsanitis. So before game five, Shazam! Jawai took a Euroleague Player of the Week trophy based on nine points, six rebounds, three blocks, a steal and exactly zero misses from floor or free-throw line. And thousands of the Barca faithful exclaim, “¡Gracias, Captain Marvel!”


Second team

Davis Bertrans, F, Partizan Belgrade, for a pair of 15-point games to help Partizan earn the 2013 Adriatic League championship;

Nicolai Iverson, PF/C, Bakken Bears, who averaged 21 points and 13 rebounds against the Svendborg Rabbits in games four and five of Denmark’s league finals;

Tony Parker, PG, San Antonio Spurs, who might have made the first team if his 23.6 points and 6.0 assists per over three games hadn’t looked so easy against the hapless and beaten Los Angeles Lakers;

Andre Smith, PF, Krasnye Krylia, for his fascinating line (7 points, 7 rebound, 5 assists, 4 steals) against Gravelines, followed by his solid 14/7 in the Eurochallenge championship game; and

Davin White, PG, Phoenix Hagen, for dropping a 33-point, five-assist, three-steal game to get upstart the Phoenix into the Bundesliga playoffs – plus finishing the season as Germany’s high scorer.

Honorable mention

Vassilis Spanoulis, G, Olympiacos. The captain again wills his defending champs into the Euroleague Final Four with his 19 points against Anadolu Efes in game five of the quarterfinals. Anyone who doesn’t believe in that old sports cliché “heart of a champion” probably wasn’t watching…


– compiled by Os Davis

Os Davis writes/posts/tweets for the ESPN TrueHoop Network site BallinEurope.com. He also co-produces the mostly European basketball-centered weekly podcast Taking the Charge with heinnews.com, and watches way too much basketball through online subscription packages and dodgy live streams.

BALLINEUROPE.COM
http://www.ballineurope.com/

TAKING THE CHARGE PODCAST
http://www.heinnews.com/category/taking-the-charge-podcast/


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