Basketball News, Scores, Stats, Analysis, Standings

POSTED BY: Eurobasket News

North Macedonian Nenad Dimitrijevic (190-PG-1998) put on an amazing game in the last round for league’s leader UNICS Kazan and that’s him to receive a Hoops Agents Player of the Week award for round 7 (Second Stage).
The 25-year old playmaker had the game-high 32 points adding five rebounds and nine assists for UNICS in his team’s victory, helping them to edge out Zenit (#3, 21-10) 91-90. The game was between two of the league’s top four teams. It allowed UNICS to consolidate first place in the VTB United League. They would have been even better if they hadn’t lost a few games earlier in Second Stage. UNICS has a very solid 25-7 record, but they cannot be too comfortable about keeping top position. In the team’s last game Dimitrijevic had a remarkable 62.5% from 2-point range and got four three-pointers out of 7 attempts. It’s his second year at UNICS and it’s hard to imagine this team without him. Dimitrijevic has impressive league stats. He is in league’s top in points (4th best: 18.6ppg), assists (4th best: 6.2apg) and averages solid 59.1% FGP and 42.7% from behind 3-point line.

The second most remarkable performance in last round’s games was young American forward Zach Smith (203-F-1996) of BC Minsk. Smith impressed basketball fans with a double-double of 21 points and 14 rebounds. Bad luck as Minsk lost that game 61-74 to slightly higher-ranked N.Novgorod (#7, 11-22). Minsk managed to keep the same 8th spot in the standings. 33 lost games are too many considering they did not win any game. Smith is one of the most experienced players at Minsk and has a reputation of one of team’s most reliable players.

The third best performed player last round was American Tyrell Nelson (205-F-1995) of second-ranked Uralmash Yekaterinburg. Nelson scored 23 points. He was a key player of Uralmash, leading his team to a 96-61 easy win against the lower-ranked Astana (#6, 12-21). Uralmash needs these victories very badly if they think about taking over top position in the standings. Their record at this point is 19 victories and 14 lost games. Nelson has a very solid season. In 31 games in VTB United League he scored 11.3ppg. He also has 4.0rpg and a FGP of 60.3%.

Other top performing players last week:
4. Jalen Reynolds (208-C-1992) of UNICS – 23 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists
5. Thomas Heurtel (189-PG-1989) of Zenit – 22 points, 2 rebounds and 10 assists
6. James Thompson IV (208-C/F-1995) of Samara – 15 points and 14 rebounds
7. Jeremiah Martin (189-PG-1996) of Enisey – 28 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists
8. Okaro White (206-F-1992) of Lokomotiv – 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists
9. Isaiah Reese (196-F/G-1996) of Parma-Pari – 22 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists
10. Kendall Smith (190-G-1995) of N.Novgorod – 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists

The Player of the week is selected based on efficiency calculation, but also including game result, importance of the game, if played recorded double-double/triple-double, etc.
The efficiency formula is a combination of various formulas used by different basketball organizations/leagues. We got involved many basketball scouts and journalists to assure it’s accuracy.
The formula: 1.5*PTS + 3*(REB+AST+ST+BL-TO) – 2*BSAG – 4*PF + 3*PFRV + 4*(2FGPM+3FGPM) + 1.5*FTM – 3*(2FGPA-2FGPM) – 3*(3FGPA-3FGPM) – (FTA-FTM)

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Nenad Dimitrijevic