Best and worst playoff performances: Vezenkov's fall and Tavares' rise / News - Basketnews.com

Edy Tavares and Kevin Punter were the leaders in performance increase in the playoffs while Sasha Vezenkov and Rolands Smits had significantly worse postseason than their regular season numbers implied.

Credit: Partizan Mozzart Bet/Dragana Stjepanovic; IMAGO/ANE Edition - Scanpix Credit Partizan Mozzart Bet/Dragana Stjepanovic; IMAGO/ANE Edition - Scanpix

When the time comes to bring out the best you have, some players rise up to the occasion while others fold. Even though the reasons are different in each case, there's no denying that some players did not live up to the expectations.

Rolands Smits

Team:Zalgiris KaunasPosition:PFAge:27Height:208 cmWeight:107 kgBirth place:Valmiera, LatviaProfileNewsStatistics

Before noting the worst performers, let's focus on the players who exceeded the initial prognosis and were among the best in all of the playoffs.

Real Madrid's big man Edy Tavares was the most dominant player in the postseason. After averaging 10.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.2 blocks for 16.2 PIR during the regular season, the Cabo Verdean upped his production and was unstoppable in the series against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade.

Tavares averaged 16.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks for a whopping 26.8 PIR, increasing the number by 10.6 when compared to the regular season, which is the #1 mark in the entire tournament.

Real Madrid had fierce competition on the other side of the court. Partizan's Kevin Punter proved his leadership skills both on and off the court during the playoffs.

Punter already had pretty good numbers in the regular season, averaging 15.5 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 2.4 assists for 14.2 PIR and making the coveted 50/40/90 club. Nevertheless, in 3 games that he managed to play due to league sanctions, the Partizan guard was dominant on the floor, significantly increasing both his scoring and efficiency numbers.

After averaging 15.5 points in the regular season, Punter scored an impressive 22.7 points per game vs Real Madrid. At the same time, his PIR numbers increased from 14.2 to 24, which was the second-best in the competition, only behind Tavares. In the process, Punter shot an impressive 59.3% beyond the arc, making 16 threes in 27 attempts.

Interestingly, the third-largest increase in efficiency came from a player not a lot of people expected. FC Barcelona's youngster Rokas Jokubaitis averaged just 6.3 PIR during the regular season. In the playoff series against his former club from Kaunas, Jokubaitis averaged 14.7 PIR, which was the 15th-highest in the postseason.

Rolands Smits

MIN:23.38PTS:9.7 (55.21%)REB:4.68As:1.05ST:0.41BL:0.14TO:1.38GM:37ProfileEuroLeague2022/2023

His teammate Jan Vesely dominated against Zalgiris Kaunas, averaging 19 PIR per game compared to his 11.1 PIR mark in the regular season, which was the fourth-biggest efficiency increase in the playoffs.

Despite the loss, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv guard Wade Baldwin IV proved that the contract extension he signed earlier in the season was worth it. Even though he was the second-highest scorer in the regular season, Baldwin managed to increase his production from 16.7 points per game to 19.8. He was much more efficient as well, averaging 24 PIR in the playoffs compared to 16.4 PIR in the regular season.

Notable players: Moustapha Fall (7.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 11.7 PIR in the regular season; 8.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 16.6 PIR in the playoffs), Gabriel Deck (11.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, 15.4 PIR in the regular season; 15.3 points, 6 rebounds, 19.3 PIR).

The presumptive EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov did not remind his usual self in the playoffs. He was completely stopped in Game 4 against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, scoring just 2 points and ending the match with 0 PIR. In four of the five games, he recorded fewer PIR points than his regular season average.

Overall, Vezenkov's numbers don't look bad - 14.6 points and 5.2 rebounds for 15 PIR but it's nothing compared to his regular season averages of 17.6 points, 7.1 rebounds, and a whopping 22.2 PIR.

However, the biggest decrease in performance comes from the series that had only 3 games in it. Zalgiris Kaunas forward Rolands Smits averaged 3.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, and just 2.7 PIR in the playoffs when his numbers were much better in the regular season - 10.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 10 PIR.

Fenerbahce's star guard Nick Calathes holds the third-largest decrease in efficiency in the playoffs, going from 8.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 10.9 PIR in the regular season to 6.8 points, 2.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and just 4.4 PIR in the playoffs.

Other downfalls are not quite as large. The most notable of them is probably Lorenzo Brown, who was among the league leaders in the regular season but did not live up to the expectation in the postseason.

Brown went from averaging 16.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 5.7 assists for 16.7 PIR in the regular season to recording 15.4 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 4.2 assists for 12.4 PIR in the playoffs against AS Monaco.

Monaco's Elie Okobo was underwhelming as well, going from 12.8 points and 3.6 assists for 12.6 PIR to 10.4 points and 3 assists but just 8 PIR in the playoffs.

Notable players: Mathias Lessort (12.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 19.5 PIR in the regular season; 11.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, 15.8 PIR in the playoffs), Dante Exum (13.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 14.8 PIR in the regular season; 12.6 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 10.8 PIR in the playoffs). It is worth noting that Exum played while being injured after the brawl in Game 2.

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