Playoffs Game 4 MVP: Edgaras Ulanovas 1

On a historic night for Zalgiris Kaunas, forward Edgaras Ulanovas came through with a resounding performance to become MVP for Game 4 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs and lift his team to its historic first Final Four this century.

Ulanovas was everywhere in a 101-91 victory over Olympiacos Piraeus that gave Zalgiris a 3-1 triumph in its first series under the playoffs format begun in 2005.

After not scoring a single point in Games 2 and 3, Ulanovas dropped 20 points in Game 4, just 2 points shy of his career high. Ulanovas made 4 of 8 two-point shots and 3 of 4 triples. while pulling down 9 rebounds, the high total among all players in the series. He also had 2 assists and 1 steal, all of it adding up to a performance index rating of 27, the highest by a player on a winning team in Game 4.

The highest index rating of Game 4, however, belonged to Alexey Shved of Khimki Moscow Region, who posted a PIR of 37 in a series-ending 88-89 loss against CSKA Moscow. Shved set two EuroLeague Playoffs single-game records, with 36 points and 8 three-pointers made on 12 attempts. He also dished 6 assists and pulled down 5 rebounds in the loss.

Fenerbahce Istanbul teammates Nicolo Melli and Marko Guduric followed with index ratings of 26 in their team’s 83-92 series-clinching win over KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria. Guduric netted 22 points with 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 rebound, while Melli had 21 points with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

Rounding out the list of top performers in Game 4 were Kevin Pangos of Zalgiris and Luka Doncic of Real Madrid. Pangos scored 21 points with 4 assists, 2 rebounds and 1 steal for a PIR of 24, the same as Doncic, who collected 17 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in an 89-82 win over Panathinaikos Athens that sent Madrid to the Final Four in Belgrade.