Anadolu Efes Istanbul center Tibor Pleiss starred on Thursday night to lead his team's return to the Final Four and become the MVP for Game 4 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs.
Playoffs Game 4 MVP: Tibor Pleiss, Efes
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Pleiss had one of the best performances of his career as Efes downed AX Armani Exchange Milan 75-70 to clinch their best-of-five series 3-1. Pleiss accumulated a performance index rating of 37, matching the third-best playoffs total in the last decade. It is also the second-best in his 11-season EuroLeague career. Pleiss scored a season-high 25 points while missing only 1 shot. The Efes big man went 5-of-6 on two-pointers, 3-of-3 on threes, and made all 6 free throws. His 88.9% field goal accuracy is the highest in the playoffs so far for any player making more than 5 shots. This is the second MVP of the Round honor for Pleiss, after his first one in November of 2016.
The next-best PIRs from Game 4 belonged to Pleiss's teammate Vasilije Micic and AS Monaco center Donta Hall, each with a PIR of 25. Micic posted 20 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals in Efes's series-clinching win against Milan, while Hall collected 14 points and 10 rebounds, with a steal and a block in Monaco's thrilling 78-77 home win against Olympiacos Piraeus to even their series 2-2. Following them, Nick Weiler-Babb had 12 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal for a PIR 24 for FC Bayern Munich in beating FC Barcelona 59-52 to force Game 5 in that series. Rounding out the list of best performers in Game 4 were Olympiacos teammates Kostas Sloukas and Sasha Vezenkov, with a PIR of 22 each. Sloukas had 19 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds, while Vezenkov collected 17 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists in their team's loss at Monaco.