NBA Europe: Giannis chasing Abdul-Jabbar records and Vucevic's Jordan-esque stat / News - Basketnews.com

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The NBA trade deadline is almost here, and next time we are talking about the weekly Euro report, there will probably be plenty of exciting news to deliver.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Team:Milwaukee BucksPosition:PF, SFAge:27Height:211 cmWeight:98 kgBirth place:Athens, GreeceProfileNewsStatistics

Even now, we are not left with anything as Ricky Rubio is traded (yet again) to Indiana Pacers in exchange for Caris Levert and a package of draft picks designed for some more fresh talent.

Truthfully, it is hard to be Ricky because he was having a great season despite being upset about getting traded to the Cavaliers back in last summer. Now he also has to recover from an ACL injuryand a new team to settle in. Get well soon, Ricky.

The Euro community knew very well how Luka Doncic loved daunting and questionable challenges even before leaving for NBA, but he keeps everyone amazed about his new adventures.

Last night against the Hawks, Luka Doncic got his third and fourth fouls already in the 2nd quarter, not getting worried to challenge in-form Hawks forwardJohn Collins.

Then at the very beginning of the 3rd quarter, he was kind of "trapped" by Trae Youngto reach his fifth.

Did he foul out in the end? No. Instead, he led the Mavericks to win against the Hawks and managed to figure out the 45th triple-double of his career, just after the one against the 76ers, to bring himself into the Top 10 list of NBA Career triple-doubles. The boy is amazing.

Intrigued by these? There is some more.

Giannis is After another Abdul-Jabbar Record

Giannis Antetokounmpo is getting ready for his 6th NBA All-Star weekend, a franchise record he shares with the NBA legend Kareem Abul-Jabbar.

He is also reportedly planning to take part in the Skills Challenge with his brothers Thanasis and Alex.

But nothing gets him distracted on the way for leading theBuckstowards the top of the Eastern Conference standings.

Ricard Rubio

MIN:28.53PTS:13.09 (46.11%)REB:4.15As:6.62ST:1.44BL:0.21TO:2.62GM:34ProfileNBA2021/2022

After losing the Euro MVP duel against Nikola Jokic last Sunday, Giannis and the Bucks bounced back with three wins in a row to stay just 0.5 wins behind 1st placed Miami Heat.

The task for the Greek Freak did not look very complicated against the Wizards when the Bucks were comfortably leading through 3 quarters as he scored only 8 points in the first half.

In the last period,MontrezlHarrell-Giannis' matchup got tougher, dirtier, and spicier as Harrell kept scoring over him and made that intimidating flagrant foul, too. The Wizards came back from -17 and took the lead.

But Giannis did not let the opponents finish their 5-game losing streak, scoring 13 of his 25 points in the last quarter.

He finished the game with 33 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists, the 30 triple-double of his career.

Against the Portland Trail Blazers, he might have posterized Jusuf Nurkic, but those small details did not matter in the bigger picture. Giannis keeps developing all aspects of the game almost constantly.

His 4/7 three-pointers (57%) were tied to his second-best accuracy in the NBA career.

In the closing game of the week, Giannis extended the 25+ points game streak to 18 against the Clippers, anchoring the Bucks for another win.

A new franchise record is on the horizon as the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 25 games of 25+ scoring from 1971-72 is not very far away.

The Rollercoaster Nights of Cedi Osman

Cedi Osman is opening up some interesting topics this season in various ways.

For better or worse, he is having a remarkable period with an injury-plagued but glorious Cavaliers.

At the beginning of the week, Cedi was freezing cold behind the arc against the Pelicans with 0/7, but his career-high 12 assists were very decisive for a hard-fought win.

Six of those assists were kick-outs and led to a 3-pointer, including a very big one for an Isaac Okoro corner three that kept Cavaliers alive in the game.

After staying on the court for a season-high 37:58 minutes against the Pelicans, some fatigue was felt against the Rockets.

Despite scoring in double digits (13 points), 8 of these came in the first quarter, and his plus-minus differential did not look good with -11.

Cavaliers lost against the Rockets, the team with the worst record in the Western Conference.

The next game was against the Hornets. This time, Cedi's offensive contribution was limited, but the opponent hit only 1/6 FG over him, which provided those important defensive stops.

Cedi finished the week with some perfect storm.

When Cavaliers were down by 7 in the 4th quarter (and 20 at one point), the Turkish forward stepped up withKevin Loveand led a 19-0 zero run to stun the Pacers. 13 of those points were scored by Cedi.

He kept building brick houses through third quarters with 0/5 threes and 1/9 FGs, but suddenly he got his mojo back. Shooting 4 threes of 5 and finishing the game with 22 points and 5 assists, he was the hero of the night.

These games also showed how effective Cedi Osman could be when used in the right way.

While his transition scoring and catch & shooting points per possession are on elite rates with 1.21 and 1.09, respectively, the same figure when he plays as a pick and roll handler is down to 0.8.

He provides the best when not required to do complicated things with the ball and kept his dribbling as few as possible.

Vucevic's Jordanesque Stats

Chicago Bulls may not have the best week with a 50:50 win/loss rate, but Nikola Vucevic had one of his strongest stretches in the past four games.

The Montenegrin remained on the court with 36.7 minutes on average and recorded 26.8 points, 13.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists per game figures. Relentless and pretty unstoppable.

Perhaps the best displays were against the Raptors and the Pacers, where he scored back-to-back 30+ points 15+ rebounds double-doubles in two days.

Let's rewind: The only game where he reached 30 points was back at the end of November. Besides, those two efforts from Vucevic completed a series of double-doubles in the last 8 of his 9 games. Now, that is impressive.

However, we must also note that no matter how much he exploited his oversized matchup against Scottie Barnes against the Raptors, he failed to clear the board, and Barnes scored to force the game to overtime, in which the Bulls eventually fell.

In the next game against the Pacers, Vucevic put down some numbers that recalled the memories of no other legend than the very Micheal Jordan.

His shooting was almost flawless, as 76% from the field was his best figure of the season. His season-high 36 points were labored up with all twos, except one 3-pointer and 3 free throws.

Certainly, Vucevic was more than happy to exploit the restricted zone of the Pacers without the services of Domantas Sabonis (COVID protocols).

The undrafted rookie Terry Taylor was never a good match against him, and poor Caris LeVert had to deal with the 2.13 center on the eve of his trade to the Cavaliers.

In the next game, much more challenging matchups in the paint against Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond restricted him to only 4 points in the last quarter (23 in total) and denied him yet another double-double.

But overall, Vucevic keeps carrying the heavy load in the Bulls offense as he is the 3rd most frequent big as a pick and roll partner (37% per synergy, after Derrick Favors 41% and Mamadi Diakite 40%, both OKC Thunder).

Despite that large volume (6.9 possession on average, which is the highest in the league as a rolling player), he remains to provide 0.97 per possession points.

That rate puts him as the 4th best provider in the entire league that uses 4.0 or more possessions and played at least 35 games along with LaMarcus Aldridge (4.5 poss, 1.20 points per possession), Jakob Poeltl (4.0 & 1.16), and well as Nikola Jokic (4.1 & 1.08)

It will be interesting to see how far the Bulls will carry their nostalgic quest for a remarkable Top 4 playoff position in the East after 6 seasons.

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