Not only were Anadolu Efes Istanbul stars Vasilije Micic and Bryant Dunston their team’s most productive players in Thursday’s victory over Zalgiris Kaunas, but the duo also achieved some impressive milestones.
Micic, Dunston reach milestones in win
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Micic, the reigning EuroLeague MVP, led the way with 20 points and 7 assists for a performance index rating of 21. In doing so, he raised his scoring average to 17.3 points per game for the season and extended his lead over FC Barcelona star Nikola Mirotic (16.9 ppg.) in the race for the Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy.
However, his bigger achievement on the night had to do with passing. Micic’s first assist of the fourth quarter – for a three-pointer by Elijah Bryant – gave Micic 892 career dimes and tied him with Marcelinho Huertas among the all-time top 10 on the EuroLeague charts. His next assist – and final one of the night - was to Rodrigue Beaubois and put Micic in sole possession of 10th place.
Dunston was strong in the paint all night long and tallied 11 points on 5-of-7 two-point shooting, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 block for a PIR of 19. Among his rebounds, 4 were on the offensive board and allowed him to leapfrog Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul big man Jan Vesely for seventh place on the career charts with 507. What’s more, sixth and fifth place are in sight; they belong to Nikola Milutinov (509) of CSKA Moscow and Ante Tomic (520).
The Efes center also collected the 200th steal of his career in the game and finished the night with 202, which is 28th on the all-time charts. He is closing in on another round number, too. Dunston is the all-time leader in blocks and after his rejection on Thursday, he needs just 3 more to become the first player in competition history to block 300 shots.